Congress says release all files, doubts BJP agenda

The Congress on Saturday pitched for declassifying all files related to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, but said the way Prime Minister Naredra Modi has set about the task, raises doubts about his intentions.

“The Congress has already said that it would like to see all the files declassified because attempts are being made to raise a controversy and misguide the people of the country through a mischievous political campaign,” party’s senior spokesperson Anand Sharma said.

Mr Sharma’s remarks came on a day when the PM made public digital copies of 100 secret files relating to Netaji on his 119th birth anniversary, which could throw some light on the controversy over his death.

“The way the PM has carried this out raises doubts about the intentions of the Modi government, the nation needs to understand this,” Mr Sharma told reporters here dismissing suggestions by some of Netaji’s relatives that the Congress had always tried to suppress truth about Bose.

He said the Congress does not want to enter into any debate with any distant relative of Bose.

“We respect what has been said by his own daughter. Netaji had only one daughter and what she has said is in public domain and the country must respect her sentiments because she has been anguished by this deliberately created mischief and controversy,” he claimed.

Netaji’s daughter Anita Bose Pfaff has in the past said that she believed her father died in the air crash in Taihoku airport in Taiwan in August, 1945 “until proved otherwise”.

Mr Sharma lamented that the PM, in order to “deflect” the attention from the “miserable failure” of his government on all fronts, is coming up with such ploys.

The party also cautioned the media against using “fabricated and forged documents” that has surreptitiously been circulating over the internet, seeking to “defame” Jawaharlal Nehru on the Netaji issue.