‘PM took decision to classify Netaji files with election in mind’

October 17, 2015

Kolkata, Oct 17: Political parties in West Bengal have said Prime Minister Narendra Modi's decision to declassify Netaji files from January 23, next year is an attempt to hijack the legacy of Bose by cashing in on the emotions revolving around him.

netajiOpposition parties, including the Congress and the CPI(M), have also accused the Prime Minister of taking the decision with an eye on the next year's Assembly poll in the state, a charge denied by the BJP.

While the ruling Trinamool Congress felt the matter was being "politicised" and "stretched", CPI(M) politburo member Mohammed Salim said Modi was trying to grab space occupied by Netaji in the hearts of people as the RSS-BJP did not have any contribution to India's Independence struggle.

"We have been demanding for long that the files be declassified. Why didn't they declassify them for the last one and a half years? The main agenda behind the decison to declassify files is to cash in on the sentiments and emotions of people surrounding Netaji before the 2016 Assembly polls," Salim told PTI.

"The RSS-BJP does not have any contribution towards India's Independence struggle. So they need an icon from the struggle and that is why they are trying to hijcak Netaji's legacy. But they should know that the ideals of Netaji do not go along with the communal ideology of RSS," Salim observed.

Bowing to a long-standing demand, the Prime Minister on October 14 announced that the government would start unveiling secret files on Bose from January 23 next year, raising hopes about solving the seven-decade-old mystery about his disappearance.

Modi also promised to write and personally take up with foreign governments the issue of declassifying their own files on Bose beginning with Russia in December.

Senior Congress leader Rashid Alvi said if Modi was so serious about declassifying the files, he would have done it as soon as he assumed power.

"If they were so serious about declassification of Netaji files, they could have done that after coming to power in 2014," Alvi said.

Alvi went on, "It was their poll promise. We didn't stop them from doing that. But now Modiji is declassifying the files from next year, just keeping in mind next year's Assembly polls. He is doing politics on each and every issue and has not spared the issue of Netaji even."

Even the Trinamool Congress, which has won hearts of all Netaji followers and lovers by releasing all 64 Netaji files that lay in government archives, felt that there was no need to stretch the matter of declassification till next year.

"The state government has already declassified those 64 files. Why is the Centre taking so long to declassify their files? They are trying to politicise the matter and that is why they are streching the matter till January," TMC MP Sultan Ahmed told PTI.

Not otherwise questioning the Prime Minister's declassification decision, the AIFB, the party formed by Netaji, said there should be a clarity by what time the declassification of the files would be over.

"He has said that the declassification of files will start from January, but by when the process will be complete is yet to be answered. And what about accepting the report by the Mukherjee Commission, which was outrightly rejected by the then UPA regime?" AIFB General Secretary Debabrata Biswas said.

Netaji had gone missing in 1945 and some of his family members rejected the theory that he had died in a plane crash at Taihoku in Taiwan on August 18 that year.

The BJP, however, denied all the allegations, saying Modi had announced the decision keeping in mind the national interest only.

"The allegations are baseless. The decision was taken keeping in mind the national interest. Modiji himself has said that there is no need to strangle history. The Congress has been trying to do that only. The Congress had hatched a conspiracy of lies," BJP National Spokesperson M J AKbar said.

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News Network
May 10,2020

May 10: Delhi recorded five more deaths due to coronavirus, while 381 fresh cases of the virus were reported, the city government said on Sunday.

With the fresh cases, the virus tally in the national capital has climbed to 6,923.

Between midnight of May 8 and midnight of May 9, five fresh fatalities due to the virus were reported, taking the death toll to 73, the government said in its health bulletin.

While there are 4,781 active cases of the virus in the city, 2069 patients have so far recovered from COVID-19.

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News Network
January 21,2020

Amaravati, Jan 21: Telugu Desam Party president N Chandrababu Naidu and at least 17 MLAs of his party were taken in police custody late on Monday as they tried to conduct a foot march from the state assembly to nearby Mandadam village in violation of prohibitory orders.

TDP leaders started off on the march after staging a sit-in near the assembly main entrance following the suspension of 17 MLAs from the House for the day.

They were protesting the AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill, 2020, that was passed by the assembly, enabling the establishment of three capitals for the state.

The TDP leaders were taken to the Mangalagiri police station.

Meanwhile, tensions prevailed at the Jana Sena Party headquarters at Mangalagiri as police prevented its president Pawan Kalyan from proceeding to the Amaravati region to speak to protesters fighting for the retention of only one capital for the state.

DIG Kanti Rana Tata and other senior police officials reached the Sena office and blocked the exit of Kalyan and political affairs committee chairman Nadendla Manohar, resulting in an argument.

Kalyan asked how could police impose restrictions within his own office.

Scores of Sena workers gathered outside the office even as a large posse of police was posted to thwart Kalyan and other leaders' plans.

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March 12,2020

New Delhi, Mar 12: The Supreme Court told the Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday that as of now, there was no law that could back their action of putting up roadside posters of those accused of vandalism during anti-CAA protests in Lucknow.

An apex court bench refused to stay the March 9 Allahabad High Court order directing the Yogi Adityanath administration to remove the posters.

The top court, which grilled the Uttar Pradesh government for putting up such posters in public, described the plea as a matter that needed "further elaboration and consideration".

A vacation bench of justices U U Lalit and Aniruddha Bose said a "bench of sufficient strength" would consider next week the Uttar Pradesh government's appeal against the Allahabad High Court order directing the state administration to remove the posters of those accused of vandalism during anti-CAA protests.

It directed the apex court registry to put up the case file before Chief Justice of India (CJI) S A Bobde so that a "bench of sufficient strength can be constituted at the earliest to hear and consider" the case next week.

During the hearing, the bench told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, that it was a matter of "great importance".

It asked Mehta whether the state government had the power to put up such posters.

The top court, however, said there was no doubt that action should be taken against rioters and they should be punished.

Mehta told the court that the posters were put up as a "deterrent" and the hoardings only said that these persons were liable to pay for their alleged acts during the violence.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for former IPS officer S R Darapuri whose poster has also been affixed in Lucknow, told the bench that the state was duty-bound to show the authority of law backing its action.

He said the action of the Uttar Pradesh government amounted to a "mega blanket" approach of naming and shaming these persons without final adjudication and it was an open invitation to common men to lynch them as the posters also had their addresses and photographs.

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