Congress MP bats for Netaji Bose regiment in Indian Army

Kolkata, Apr 17: Batting for the declassification of secret government files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda on Friday said he has moved a bill proposing to name an army regiment after the nationalist leader.

Amid the raging controversy over the alleged snooping of Netaji's kin by the successive Congress governments, the Lok Sabha member from Rohtak described the suggestions of rivalry between Bose and late prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru as "misconstrued".

"Netaji's Indian National Army had regiments named after Gandhi, Nehru, and Maulana Azad. So, why can't Bose be the first individual to have an Indian Army regiment named after him?" [Will Netaji's files be made public? Modi Govt forms high-level committee to take final call]

"I have moved a private member bill in parliament proposing to set up a regiment after Bose in the Indian Army," Hooda told media persons at an event organised by the Indian Chamber Of Commerce here.

Hooda also asserted that there was no rivalry between Nehru and Bose, rather they were aligned on economic policies. [Venkaiah attacks Cong for "delayed" Bharat Ratna for Ambedkar]

"All this talk of Bose-Nehru rivalry is misconstrued and being needlessly created. The fact was both the leaders were aligned on economic policies and batted for socialism. It was rather Sardar Patel who was opposed to Bose," said Hooda.

Even as he refused to comment on the snooping controversy, Hooda said all classified documents should be publicised for the truth to come out.

According to documents accessed by author and researcher Anuj Dhar, Bose's close relatives, including his two nephews Sisir Kumar Bose and Amiya Nath Bose, were spied upon for 20 years between 1948 and 1968.

Jawaharlal Nehru was the prime minister for 16 of those 20 years.

The clamour for publicising over 150 secret documents too has been gaining ground with the Narendra Modi-led central government setting up an inter-ministerial committee headed by the cabinet secretary to review the Official Secrets Act in the context of such files.