NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Sunday said he would be hosting 50 family members of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in October, but avoided any reference to declassification of 89 secret Netaji files locked away in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Ministry of External Affairs.
In his monthly radio programme Mann Ki Baat, Modi said it was a matter of great of joy to host Netaji’s family members at 7 RCR in October.
But the Prime Minister’s silence on declassifying the Netaji files was intriguing as he had promised Netaji’s grandnephew Surya Bose during a meeting in Berlin in April that he will look into the issue seriously. The matter was again raised in May when Modi visited Kolkata and met with Netaji’s grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose and other family members.
Though the Prime Minister avoided any mention of declassification of the files, Chandra Kumar Bose took to twitter to announce that the family will discuss the issue during the October meeting in New Delhi.
A total 89 files — 29 with the Ministry of External Affairs and 60 with the PMO — are yet to be made public by the Union government. It had argued that disclosure of the classified files will adversely affect relations with foreign states.