Centre should declassify Netaji files: Mamata

Ruing that there hasn’t been a proper evaluation of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s “immense contribution”, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said the Centre should follow the state government's decision on declassification of files related to the freedom fighter.

“We have declassified 64 Netaji files. The immense contributions of Netaji <g data-gr-id="23">has</g> not been evaluated properly. We feel that the Centre should follow us and declassify the files,” Banerjee said in the state Assembly.

She said the state would also digitise files of Cabinet decisions taken between 1937-47. The state government had declassified 64 Netaji files on Friday last.

Earlier when asked that it is said India’s relations with some countries might be affected if files on Netaji with the Centre were declassified, she said, “Now we have got independence. There is no harm in honouring those leaders who got us independence. We should salute them. Before declassifying the <g data-gr-id="28">files</g> we have seen that internationally nothing will happen. If we have <g data-gr-id="26">bilateral</g> relation with a country it is necessary to review it.”

On whether there might be law and order problem after declassification of these files, “I don’t think that there will be any law and order problem. It is a mere excuse. If there <g data-gr-id="22">is</g> any law and order problem, we are there to tackle it.”

The Centre will declassify the files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose lying with it and is only taking <g data-gr-id="80">time</g> to do it because they have links to several nations, according to West Bengal BJP president Rahul Sinha. “The files related to Netaji are related to several nations and that is why the Centre is taking <g data-gr-id="79">time</g> to declassify them. But the files will be made public,” Sinha told reporters here. Sinha, however, had a dig at the ruling Trinamool Congress for “indirectly doing politics” over declassification of the state government’s own Netaji files and “it is their ploy to win next year’s Assembly elections by riding on the emotions linked with the great leader”. He asserted that if those files were declassified “nothing will happen to the BJP, but both the Congress and the communists will be embarrassed”. He said the Centre’s eventual release of Netaji files to the public “will disappoint the TMC”. Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh on Sunday had stated that the decision on Netaji files lying with the Centre would be made soon.