Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said it's a shame for the nation that even after so many years of the disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, people don't know what happened to the leader nor do they have the date of his death.
She also hit out at the BJP-ruled central government for not keeping their promise of investigating Netaji's disappearance.
The country is celebrating Netaji's 127th birth anniversary on Tuesday.
"It's India's bad luck that even after so many years we do not have Netaji's death date. We do not know what happened to him. It is as if the fact is hidden behind the darkness of the new moon. It's a shame," Banerjee said after garlanding a statue of Bose here.
It is believed by many that Netaji disappeared after a plane crash in Taiwan in August 1945. There are several theories about what happened to him after that.
The chief minister said, "We are ashamed that still we do not know where Netaji had gone, do not know whether he disappeared or what happened to him or whether he was tortured, or whether he was hiding?" Banerjee referred to the declassification of 64 files related to Netaji by her government in 2015 and accused the BJP-led central government of forgetting its promises made before coming to power to investigate the freedom fighter's disappearance.
The Bengal CM said that she was not interested in getting the "ashes" claimed to be that of Netaji, but instead was keen on seeing the great Indian leader alive.
Reports have suggested that the ashes of Bose are preserved at Renkoji temple in Tokyo. Demands were made by several quarters that the ashes be handed over to India.
"Some people were saying that the ashes will be handed over but I said we want Netaji in flesh and blood. Netaji is our emotion, our sentiment. Do not know whether he is fine or not, but still would pray for his good health. We seek his blessings," she said.
In an apparent reference to the Centre declaring a half-day public holiday in central government offices on the occasion of Ram temple's consecration ceremony on Monday, Banerjee said these days holidays are declared for “political advertisements”.
"However, there is no holiday for those who fought for the country. For 20 years, I tried to make Netaji's birth anniversary a national holiday but failed. Please forgive me," she said.
The Trinamool Congress supremo hit out at the central government for scrapping the Planning Commission conceptualised by Bose, alleging that the NITI Aayog was nothing but a “doll" which nods at every instruction given to it.
The Planning Commission, a government institution which formulated India's Five-Year Plans besides performing other functions, was set up in March 1950. The Narendra Modi government disbanded it in 2014 and formed Niti Aayog.
"I remember holding Planning Commission meetings with the chief secretaries and other important officials on how to spend funds. There is no Planning Commission today. Actually, there is no plan for the country,” she said.
Banerjee alleged that these days plans are made only to kill and torture people, and to divide and rule with politics of hatred.
She also said that India in the current era has no leader like Netaji who had people of all faiths beside him.
The chief minister said, "You call a person the leader of the country who has Hindus on one side and Muslims on another; who has Christians, Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs, Parsis with him. Where is such a leader today?” That is why the country is witnessing fighting and people like Mir Jafar are on the rise, she claimed.
Mir Jafar, an army commander, betrayed his mater Siraj ud-Daulah, the Nawab of Bengal, during the Battle of Plassey in 1757, paving the way for British rule in India.
Referring to Netaji's writings, Banerjee said that if the country had followed his words, India could have evolved as a far more developed nation in the world.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)