The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) on Saturday contacted via telephone Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s family members for a discussion with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the declassification of relevant files lying with the Centre.
The moves comes a day after the Mamata Banerjee government in West Bengal announced the decision to declassify all Netaji files in the state government’s possession.
Netaji’s grandnephew, Chandra Bose, told HT they will urge the PM to write to Russian president Vladimir Putin to provide access to the files with the KGB. “The crucial files that deal with the Netaji’s disappearance are with the Centre. Equally crucial files are lying with the KGB and the MI6. We will urge the PM to write to Putin to provide access to those files,” Bose said.
“We are communicating with the British government that is helping us. We now want Modi’s help to persuade the Russian government vis-à-vis the KGB files,” he added.
This will be their fourth meeting with Modi; this time, the PMO has already displayed remarkable latitude. The person who rang placed no limit on the number of members who want to attend and even asked Bose to choose the time of meeting as per their convenience. Earlier, the PMO set the time and limited the number of invitees. “We are thinking of going to Delhi between October 10 and 14,” said Bose.
{{/usCountry}}This will be their fourth meeting with Modi; this time, the PMO has already displayed remarkable latitude. The person who rang placed no limit on the number of members who want to attend and even asked Bose to choose the time of meeting as per their convenience. Earlier, the PMO set the time and limited the number of invitees. “We are thinking of going to Delhi between October 10 and 14,” said Bose.
{{/usCountry}}Incidentally, Modi met the Bose family members thrice — once each in Germany, New Delhi and Kolkata — to discuss the question of declassification.
In mid-April, the Centre set up a committee under the then cabinet secretary Ajit Seth, with officials of the home ministry, RAW, intelligence bureau, and external affairs ministry to decide whether it can declassify documents related to the disappearance of Netaji.