Two days after the central government released 100 secret files on Netaji Shubhash Chandra Bose, the freedom fighter’s grand-nephew joined the ruling Bhartiya Janata Party at a ceremony in Kolkata on Monday.
Chandra Kumar Bose joined the saffron party in presence of the party chief Amit Shah, who was in the city to address a rally in Howrah.
Bose had also attended the ceremony in Delhi where 100 files on Netaji were declassified by the Modi government on 23 January.
He had said then, “We welcome this step by the Prime Minister wholeheartedly. This is a day of transparency in India.”
Reporters asked him if the BJP was looking at his inclusion in the party as a winning card in a ;poll-bound state.
He said, “Netaji’s ideal wish was that India should be inclusive where there is unity among all religions. It must be brought back now.”
Declassification of the 100 files by the central government came four months after West Bengal government had released 64 secret Netaji files kept in its police and state government lockers.
Netaji died in an air crash in Taipei on August 18, 1945, a Union Cabinet note 50 years later said amidst the raging controversy over the mysterious disappearance of the chief of the Indian National Army(INA).
This emerged from documents that form part of the 100 secret files, comprising 16,600 pages which were made public last Saturday.
(Inputs from PTI, Photo: NDTV)