Modi silent on talks with Putin, should have spoken to Abe: Sugata Bose

Kolkata, Jan 23 Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grand-nephew and parliamentarian Sugata Bose on Saturday found fault with Prime Minister Narendra Modi for choosing the revolutionary leader's birthday to declassify files, and said he should have spoken to Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to clear the air about Netaji's "death".

Sugata Bose, who has been a staunch votary of the theory that Netaji died in a plane crash on August 18, 1945, in Taiwan, also alleged that the central government's decision to release the secret files in phases would give a grist to the rumour mills.

"Before his recent visit to Russia, Modi had said he would speak to its president Vladimir Putin, and let us know the outcome on his return.

"He went to Russia, made stopovers in Lahore and Kabul. But on his return to the country, he kept mum. He should have told the nation what transpired in the talks between him and Putin," said Bose, the Trinamool Congress Lok Sabha from Jadavpur in West Bengal.

Describing Abe as an admirer of Netaji, Bose said: "At the outset, Modi should have spoken to him. It was from the Japanese government that we first came to know of the air crash."

While asserting that all files on Netaji should be brought into the public domain, Bose said the freshly declassified documents would not bring up any new information.

"All files should be made public simultaneously. No document on Netaji should be kept secret. But the government's decision to make the files public in phases, will only give a grist to the rumour mills."

On Modi declassifying the files on Netaji's 119th birth anniversary, Bose said: "There was no need to choose this date for this. The files could have been declassified two-three weeks back."