Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grand nephew meets PM Narendra Modi in Berlin

BERLIN: Amid a row over reported snooping of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's family decades back, his grand nephew met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here and claimed to have got an assurance that his demand for declassification of all secret files related to the freedom fighter would be looked into.

Surya Kumar Bose met Modi last night and sought declassification of all secret files related to Netaji.

The meeting took place immediately after Surya Kumar attended a reception hosted in Modi's honour by India's Ambassador to Germany Vijay Gokhale.

Surya later said he had urged the Prime Minister that the papers should be declassified immediately as he was shocked at the recent reports that the government of Jawaharlal Nehru had "spied" upon Netaji's family.

Asked about Modi's response, he said the Prime Minister assured that he would look into the matter right away as he too felt that the "truth should come out."

Surya attacked the Nehru government, saying it was "shocking" that a government of independent India had spied upon Netaji's family.

"The government should get the truth out," he said. Surya said there should an investigative commission to go into the matter to bring out the truth.

"The government also should stop spreading lies that only non-violence had led to the Independence as it could not be won without the contribution of Subhas Bose," his nephew said.

Asked about the earlier Commissions of inquiry, he said, "the first two were totally bogus."

He said the Mukherjee Commission had done more but it did not have investigative powers.

Surya had on Sunday said, "Subhas Bose did not belong just to his direct family. He had himself said that the whole country is his family. I do not think it's just the duty of the family to raise this issue (of declassification of Netaji files)."

Surya, the president of the Indo-German Association in Hamburg, was invited by the Indian Embassy to attend the reception for Modi.

In an RTI reply, the Prime Minister's Office has refused to declassify secret files relating to Netaji arguing that the "disclosure would prejudicially affect relations with foreign countries".