Netaji files declassified to gain political mileage: BJP, Congress

KOLKATA: The Congress and the BJP today claimed that West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee declassified the Netaji secret files with an eye on the 2016 Assembly poll.

The parties claimed that Banerjee aimed at using sentiments of the people of the state regarding Netaji before the Assembly poll.

"She is our home minister. She knew about the existence of these files. Then what took her four and a half years to declassify these files? It is because she wants to use the sentiments revolving round Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose for her own political benefits before the next year's Assembly polls," state Congress President Adhir Chowdhury said.

Chowdhury later said that the Congress too wanted the files to be disclosed.

State BJP president Rahul Sinha too agreed that Banerjee had made the files public for her own political benefit.

"She has done it for her own political benefit. We too feel that the Centre should declassify files. Maybe those files have issues pertaining to international relation, so they are taking time to declassify them after considering all aspects," Sinha said.