Build Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's statue near India Gate, says his kin

BJP leader Chandra Kumar Bose, who is the grandnephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, appealed to the Centre to build a statue of the late freedom fighter at India Gate and INA Memorial in the national capital for his contributions to the Indian independence movement.

"It's time the GOI give proper & befitting tribute to the #LiberatorofIndia & #AzadHindFauj. Build a statue of #Netaji at India Gate, INAMemorial on Rajpath, Delhi, implement #Netaji's ideology to integrate all Bharatiyas, take the #NetajiMystery to its logical conclusion," he tweeted and tagged the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) in his post.

Born on January 23, 1897, in Odisha's Cuttack, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose played an instrumental role in the Indian freedom struggle. At the onset of the Second World War, he revived the Indian National Army (INA) or the Azad Hind Fauj under his leadership in an effort to free India from the clutches of 200-year-old British rule.

Netaji had served as the president of All India Youth Congress and also the Secretary of Bengal State Congress.

He travelled abroad extensively, visiting then Soviet Union, Germany and Russia and seeking an alliance with each of them to attack the British government in India.

The mystery surrounding the circumstances of Netaji's death has led to various theories, one of which being that he did not die in a plane crash in Taiwan on August 18, 1945, as widely believed, but escaped to the then Soviet Union.

In September 2015, the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government had declassified 64 secret files on Netaji. Furthermore, in January 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had released digital copies of 100 files related to the late freedom fighter in the public domain.

The National Archives of India subsequently released digital copies of 75 declassified files on Netaji in the public domain in two batches -- in March 2016 and April 2016.