Declassification of Netaji files begins on Saturday: Modi

The declassification of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose files will begin on Saturday, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi while paying tribute to the freedom fighter on his birth anniversary.

"Today (Saturday) is a special day for all the Indians. Declassification of Netaji files starts on Saturday. Will go to National Archives myself for the same," Modi said in a tweet.

In another tweet, Modi said: "Remembering Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on his birth anniversary. His bravery and patriotism endears him to several Indians across generations."

Modi will release digital copies of 100 files related to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose following the government's decision to declassify files on the freedom fighter.

The files, digitised and given "preliminary conservation treatment" by the National Archives of India, will be released on the birth anniversary of Bose.

The release of the files "will meet the long-standing public demand" and "will also facilitate scholars to carry out further research on Netaji", a culture ministry statement said.

The National Archives received 990 declassified files pertaining to the Indian National Army (INA) from the defence ministry in 1997.

Netaji, one of the leading lights of the Indian freedom struggle, set up the INA during World War II to take on the British Indian Army.

A former Congress president and once a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi, Bose's reported death in a plane crash in Formosa, now Taiwan, in 1945 has remained a mystery.

Bose was born on January 23, 1897 in Cuttack, Odisha.