Headlines
Congress dares Modi to declassify documents on Netaji
New Delhi, April 12
The Congress on Sunday
termed the news reports suggesting snooping of family of Netaji Subhas
Chandra Bose "motivated news plants based on selected and mischievous
leaks" and dared Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declassify all
documents relating to the freedom fighter.
In a statement, party
leader Anand Sharma accused the Bharatiya Janata Party-led government of
running "a sinister campaign" aimed at maligning national icons.
"News
reports suggesting snooping of family of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose are
motivated news plants based on selective and mischievous leaks. BJP and
government are running a sinister campaign of innuendoes, insinuations
and selective leaks aimed at maligning national icons and our founding
fathers including Jawaharlal Nehru, Vallabbhai Patel, Lal Bahadur
Shastri, Govind Ballabh Pant and others," Sharma said.
Referring
to the news report which said that Nehru had sought information about
Netaji's nephew Amiya Nath Bose's visit to Japan, Sharma said that "the
news plant contradicts the earlier media story of IB surveillance".
"One
is forced to wonder as to how and why an enquiry by a prime minister -
in most transparent manner and vide written note sent through the proper
channel of foreign secretary and ambassador - about a close associate
of a family can be construed as snooping or espionage," he said.
The
news report said that documents accessed by author Anuj Dhar for his
book show that Nehru, in a letter to then foreign secretary Subimal Dutt
in 1957, sought to know what Amiya Nath Bose was doing in Tokyo. It
said that India's ambassador replied that Amiya Nath Bose had not
indulged in any undesirable activities.
Sharma also referred to
Netaji's grandnephew Sugato Bose and said the Trinamool Congress MP had
"already rubbished and rejected the BJP-floated theories of Netaji's
alleged return causing a political challenge to Nehru, Vallabbhai Patel,
C. Rajagopalachari, Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri and others".
He
also said Sugato Bose has been quoted as saying that there was no
evidence to suggest that the alleged snooping was ordered by Nehru.
Terming
the entire exercise was "a diversionary tactic and gimmick" by BJP,
Sharma, the deputy leader of the Congress in the Rajya Sabha, said that
"motivated half truths and untruths" were being floated in the media by
Modi government with the sole aim of diverting the attention of people
of India "from miserable performance, betrayal of mandate and failed
promises".
He said the Congress, rejected the "vitriolic and
diabolical design of Modi government to defame national icons and dare
the prime minister to declassify all documents, put them in public
domain and debate the issue on the floor of parliament".
He said the party also appealed to the media to refrain from pushing forward the BJP's "insinuation-driven diversionary agenda".