Centre serious on mystery of Netaji's disappearance: BJP

No other Prime Minister has been so pro-active as Narendra Modi on the issue, said M J Akbar

On a day when West Bengal government declassified 64 secret files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, BJP today said the Centre too is serious on the issue of the nationalist leader's mysterious disappearance 70 years ago and asked Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee not to play politics over it.

"No other Prime Minister has been so pro-active as Narendra Modi on the issue. He has met the Bose family members and formed a committee to examine the whole complexity of the issue. We are confident that he will do whatever is required to be done on the matter," BJP national spokesperson M J Akbar told PTI.

"We would urge the state government not to play politics on this issue. The files that the state have declassified may not have international implications. But the files that are with the Centre have implications on relations with foreign countries," BJP national secretary Siddharth Nath Singh told the news agency.

"Modi government is serious that the truth about Netaji's disappearance should come out and that is why the Prime Minister has formed a committee," he said.

All India forward Bloc (AIFB), a party which was formed by Netaji himself, welcomed the declassification of files and demanded that the Centre follow suit and make public 135 files lying with it.

"The argument of the Union government that if the files with it related to Netaji were released, the country's relation with some foreign nations may be affected adversely has no logic," AIFB general secretary Debabrata Biswas said.

CPI(M) sniffed a hand in glove approach by TMC and BJP on the issue of declassification of files on Netaji.

"The TMC and BJP are hand in gloves on this issue of declassification of files. BJP wants to bring down Nehru-Gandhi family. We too had our share of differences with Nehru. BJP is now trying to test the waters before taking the decision to declassify files that are lying with the Centre," CPI(M) politburo member Mohammed Salim said.