Declassification of Netaji files may cause upheaval: BJP

NEW DELHI: Political discourse in the country could take a different turn after January 23 next year when the government unveils secret files related to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on his birth anniversary, BJP leader Sidharth Nath Singh said on Thursday. The CPM has meanwhile demanded immediate declassification of all the files to remove doubts concerning the death of the freedom fighter.

Singh, BJP's secretary in-charge of West Bengal, who was present during the interaction that Netaji's 35 family members had with Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Wednesday, said the decision to declassify the files was "historic" as it will help bring to light many things that have been hidden in the last seven decades.

"The wait of 70 years has come to an end by the historic decision taken by Prime Minister Modi," he said.

"The political discourse of the country is likely to change after January 23, 2016," he added, while referring to the decision to declassify the files from that day, which is the birth anniversary of Bose.

Attending a convention organized by Bose's party Forward Bloc on his disappearance, Left leaders demanded immediate declassification of the Netaji files. CPM leader Prakash Karat said, "PM has not clarified on the files to be declassified. We want that he should announce a time frame and declare that all files will be declassified in the next session of Parliament, otherwise doubts will be there."

General Secretary of Forward Bloc Debabrata Biswas demanded that January 23 should be celebrated as deshprem diwas. He also said that his party had demanded declassification of Bose papers during UPA regime but nothing came out of it.

Singh, rejected the perception that the Centre decided to declassify the files "under pressure" after West Bengal's Mamata Banerjee government decided to make the Netaji files lying in its archives, public.

Contending that the decision to declassify was "a result of that effort which has been going on for months," Singh went on to suggest that Mamata had declassified the files because of the initiatives of Modi who had met some family members of Netaji in Germany in April and some others in West Bengal later. "Nevertheless, we are happy that Mamataji declassified the files," he added.

The BJP leader said Congress had become "jittery" because of the decision as "history will be re-written now".

Questioning previous Congress governments for refusing to declassify the files despite demands over the last seven decades, he asked, "Did they have something to hide? Was there a cover-up in not declassifying the files?"

The files declassified by West Bengal government and certain leaked documents have already "pointed fingers towards Congress, particularly Jawaharlal Nehruji," Singh said, referring to reports that the family members of Netaji were snooped upon in 1950s and 1960s by the then government.

He questioned the Nehru government on why it had not given due pension to the members of Indian National Army (INA) headed by Netaji.

Giving details about Wednesday's interaction, he said, the Prime Minister told Bose's family members that it was an "honour" for him to serve the nation and a "privilege to serve the family of Netaji."

Singh said Modi told Bose family members that they should consider him as one of them and instead of making requests, they should make him do this work.