NEW DELHI: BJD leader B Mahtab today asked why secrecy was maintained over the disappearance of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose for decades since the times of Jawaharlal Nehru and wondered whether it was a "joke".
He asserted that there was nothing which could have forced Russia or Japan to break their diplomatic relations with India in case details about Netaji's disappearance was revealed.
"We have been hearing since our school and college days that Soviet Union and Japan will go against us once we release these files... Where are those files," Mahtab asked while speaking on the Motion of Thanks to the President for his address.
"Why was this pretext being given for decades since Nehru's time, Indira Gandhi's time and Rajiv Gandhi's time? Why? Is it a joke," he asked.
He said that during Atal Bihari Vajpayee's government, the M K Mukherjee Commission was set up, which had said that there was no accident in the Formosa Islands -- the place from where Netaji is believed to have disappeared.
"So, we have to understand why this amount of secrecy was maintained. Or is there something else? Whatever it may be, it is a very sad one," Mahtab said.
Regarding the 100 de-classified files containing 17,000 pages relating to Netaji which were released by the central government recently, Mahtab said those do not reveal anything that was not known.
"The real revelation which was so zealously guarded as top secret and closed files contained nothing new which could endanger the security of India. There was nothing to jeopardise India's foreign relations," he noted.