Netaji kin hit the streets, demand declassification of files

KOLKATA: The family members of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose today hit the city streets demanding declassification of files on the freedom fighter.

"We want both the central and state governments to declassify files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose immediately. This is not an appeal to them but it is our demand," Netaji's grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose told reporters here.

"There are around 64 secret files with the state government and over 100 files with the central government.... The common man wants to know what has happened to the leader," Bose said.

Members of Netaji's family took out a procession from the Indian Association Hall in central Kolkata to the INA Memorial on Dufferin Road.

He claimed that 23 members of Netaji's family had written six times to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee requesting her to declassify the files that were with the state government but got no response.

"We want her to declassify all the files and it's her duty to do so. But if she fails to do so, she must step down from her chair," Bose said.

He said that his elder brother Surya Kumar Bose met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Berlin yesterday adding "we have got a very positive response from the Prime Minister."

"He (Modi) said that his government believes in truth, Surya Bose is very happy with the meeting,"

Bose alleged history had been "distorted and suppressed" by successive Congress governments at the Centre.

"It was not on August 15, 1947 that the tricolour was hoisted for the first time on Indian soil; it was on April 14, 1944 under Netaji's leadership that the tricolour was hoisted in Moirang in Manipur," he said.

Krishna bose, former MP and wife of Netaji's nephew Sisir Bose, said though declassification was needed, the hullabaloo that was being made was unwanted.

"We all want declassification of the files but there was no need to create such an uproar. I do not like it. The PM has gone to Germany for some serious work and there was no need to disturb him there," she told PTI.