Manner of disclosing Bose files by PM raises doubts: Cong

Congress today pitched for declassifying all files related to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, but said the way Prime Minister Naredra Modi has set about the task, raises doubts about his intentions.
"Congress has already said that it would like to see all files to be declassified because attempts are being made to raise a controversy and misguide people of the country through a mischievous political campaign", Party's senior spokesman Anand Sharma claimed.
Sharma's remarks came on a day when the Prime Minister made public digital copies of 100 secret files relating to Netaji on his 119th birth anniversary, which could throw some light on the controversy over his death.

"The way the Prime Minister has carried this out raises doubts about intentions of Modi government, the nation needs to understand this", Sharma told reporters here dismissing suggestions by some of Netaji's relatives that Congress had always tried to suppress truth about Bose.
He said the Congress does not want to enter into any debate with any distant relative of Bose.
"We respect what has been said by his own daughter. Netaji had only one daughter and what she has said is in public domain and the country must respect her sentiments because she has been anguished by this deliberately created mischief and controversy," he claimed.

Netaji's daughter Anita Bose Pfaff has in the past said that she believed her father died in the air crash in Taihoku airport in Taiwan in August, 1945 "until proved otherwise".

Sharma lamented that the Prime Minister in order to "deflect" the attention from the "miserable failure" of his government on all fronts is coming up with such ploys.
At the same time, the party cautioned the media against using an allegedly "fabricated and forged document" that has surreptitiously been circulating on the internet, seeking to "defame" Jawaharlal Nehru on the Netaji issue.
He noted that Nehru had defended Major General Shahnawaz Khan, Col Sehgal and Col Dhillon in the INA case in 1945-46.

Warning that publication of such a "forged" document "shall not be taken quietly, he said, "If these people have the courage, they should own up the document but we will identify. Once we have identified, we will take all measures that are required to not only expose but to ensure that they are punished under the law of the land.
"Netaji was a great national leader. He was the President also of the Congress. He participated in India's freedom struggle and we remember his contribution with much respect. We do not wish to enter into any discussion or debate but we must also respect the sentiments of Netaji's daughter. That is what we feel", he added.