Mathura violence: Netaji's family, AIFB distance themselves from 'Mathura cult'

Members of freedom fighter Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose have distanced themselves from the Swadheen Bharat Subhash Sena (SBSS) - accused of having perpetrated the Mathura violence. Netaji's family and members of the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) have come forward to say that the ideology of the SBSS does not resonate with them.

Chandra Kumar Bose, Netaji's grand nephew, who lost against Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee on a BJP ticket in the recently-concluded Assembly polls, said the so-called Netaji cult may not have any connection with Netaji.

Bose is also the convener of the Open Platform for Netaji, which includes 50 members of the Bose family and 450 other members.

A dna report quoted The All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) National Secretary, G Devarajan, as saying that the party's UP committee is trying to reach out to the SBSS leaders to assess if their demands are genuine.

"We see little merit in their claims of meeting Netaji in jungles of UP or even their demands of a parallel governance," dna quoted Devarajan as saying.

Despite denying any association with the SBSS, Devarajan said the administration was to blame for the violence. "These people are not nomads, they have an ideology for which they need land, shelter. They had settled on the land two years ago, and they can't suddenly be asked to evict the land without any alternate plan," Devarajan told dna.

"It's interesting to note, they are hailing from Sagar in Madhya Pradesh, which has a huge Netaji fan following, since Netaji and his brother were imprisoned in the Seoni jail there," he said.