Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's family observes 'Declassification Day'

KOLKATA: Scores of admirers of NetajiSubhas Chandra Bose today visit Japan's Renkoji Temple to mourn his "death anniversary", but his family in Kolkata has decided to observe "Declassification Day" from this year demanding that all the secret files related to his death be made public.

Seeking declassification of all the secret files and documents related to the mystery about the fate of the nationalist leader, who went missing in 1945, the family has started observing August 18 as "Declassification Day" from this year.

Netaji's grandnephew Surya Kumar Bose, who has recently visited Renkoji temple where Netaji's purported ashes are kept, said, "His admirers from different parts of Japan pay a visit to the temple each year to pay homage to the leader."

"So far, we have never observed the day as we don't believe that he died on August 18. There is circumstantial evidence to prove that he was in Russia after that date in 1945. But now we have started observing this day as declassification day to put pressure on the government to make public the hidden files on his life," the family spokesperson Chandra Kumar Bose told PTI.

To mark the occasion, they held a public meeting in Kolkata where they appealed all political parties to come forward and support the cause.