Kolkata: Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday hit out at the Centre for not declaring Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's birthday a national holiday and lamented that the iconic freedom fighter is yet to get his due.
"The birthday of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose has not yet been declared a national holiday. Cannot we show this much respect to him?
"The state had announced public holiday on January 23 years ago," Mamata said after offering floral tributes to Bose at Indira Gandhi Sarani here on his 121st birth anniversary.
She also slammed the Centre for not declassifying all files related to Bose and said: "It's a shame that we still do not know what happened to Netaji after he left Bengal in 1941. Files related to him have still not been declassified."
According to the members of Bose family, 77 Intelligence Bureau (IB) files lying with the Centre are yet to be declassified.
The Chief Minister added: "We offer our tribute to Netaji on his birthday every year. But it is sad that we are still in the dark about the real facts of his later part of life. Different people believe in different theories and opinions vary from person to person in this connection. But we are still waiting for the day when we will get to know what had actually happened to Netaji, which is still a mystery."
Regarding declaring a holiday on Netaji's birthday, Governor Keshari Nath Tripathi said that requests have already been sent to the Centre and it would be a good gesture if it is done.
The Chief Minister maintained that Netaji had formed the Indian National Army and there were people from all castes, creed and religion as he used to believe that freedom of the country will not come by separating people.
"Netaji had not only thought about the freedom of the country but had also planned about the work that needed to be undertaken after Independence for development of the country. That is the reason why he had set up bodies like the Indian National Army and the Planning Commission. It is sad that today the Planning Commission no more exists," Banerjee said.
MP Sugata Bose, nephew of Netaji, state Panchayat Minister Subrata Mukherjee, Chief Secretary Malay De, Director General of Police Surajit Kar Purkayastha and Commissioner of Police Rajeev Kumar along with many other dignitaries including singer Dwijen Mukhopadhyay were present in the programme.