West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Wednesday wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi urging him to declare the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose as national holiday. She also urged the Centre to take “decisive steps to find out what happened to Netaji and place the matter in public domain so that people get to know what finally happened to the great leader”.
“I would like to request your kind personal intervention to see that the Central government declares January 23, Netaji’s 125t birth anniversary, a national holiday and also takes appropriate steps to give conclusive position to the issue relating to the disappearance of Netaji and unravel the truth by giving the people the much-awaited opportunity to know what happened to their great leader — their inspiration and their passion,” the Chief Minister said.
She said Netaji has a “special place in our hearts” and is an inspiration across all generations. The Chief Minister suggested that announcing national holiday will be the initiation of the celebration of the 125th birth anniversary of the national leader who is the epitome of determination, courage, leadership, unity and love for motherland.
Ms. Banerjee said the West Bengal government has already declassified and placed in public domain many files relating to Netaji. The Union government has also de-classified about 300 files.
The demand for announcing the birth anniversary as “Desh Prem Dibas” was raised by the All India Forward Bloc, the party set up by Netaji and a constituent of the Left Front a few years ago and the party has been raising the demand for years.
