Mamata Banerjee criticises Centre’s statement on Netaji’s ‘death’

Kolkata: Criticising the Centre’s statement on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s “death”, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on Friday, said she had drawn the attention of the prime minister, seeking to know the considered stand of the government in this regard.

“I have drawn the attention of Hon’ble Prime Minister to this matter and has sought the considered stand of Central Government in this regard (sic),” she wrote on Facebook.

“The Central Government recently gave information about Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose through a reply under the RTI Act. I am shocked to see this unilateral decision of the Central Government without evidence,” she said.

“Netaji is a great son of the soil. Our state, the country and the whole world are proud of him. Any matter involving a person of his stature does not deserve to be handled in such a casual manner,” Banerjee said.

The Ministry of Home Affairs, in a recent reply to a Right to Information (RTI) application from a resident of the state, said, “After considering the reports of Shahnawaz Committee, Justice GD Khosla Commission and Justice Mukherjee Commission of Enquiry, the Government has come to the conclusion that Netaji had died in a plane crash in 1945.”

BJP leader and Netaji’s grand nephew Chandra Bose had also rejected the Centre’s statement and demanded setting up of a special investigation team to unravel the mystery behind the freedom fighter’s disappearance.

“I demand the Central government immediately take action against the officer who gave such an irresponsible reply. How can the government come to a conclusion regarding Netaji’s death without concrete evidence?” Bose, the Bengal BJP vice-president, had wondered.

The All India Forward Bloc, a political party founded by Netaji, on Thursday demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi apologise to the nation as the Union Home Ministry had “misled” the country by saying that the nationalist leader had died in an air crash in 1945.

PTI