New Delhi: Archival material on declassified Intelligence Bureau files saying Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s family was snooped upon, mostly during Jawaharlal Nehru’s tenure as Prime Minister, triggered a political slugfest on Friday.
Expressing concern over the reports, the ruling BJP attacked the Congress for its alleged role, saying the Opposition has snooping in its DNA.
However, the Congress accused the Narendra Modi dispensation of launching a “sinister propaganda of selective leaks and half-truths” to malign national icons.
Netaji’s family also reacted to reports with “shock” and said it was a “poor reflection” on the quality of democracy at that time. Union minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the BJP is “definitely taking a stand that this is really surprising and shocking”.
“Already on the dimension of snooping, as per research that has come out, I certainly feel that till 2010-11 snooping has become a part of Congress’ DNA... We express our concern,” Ms Sitharaman said. When asked if the files relating to Bose would be declassified, she said, “We had said so in our campaign ahead of the Lok Sabha polls. I am sure the government is looking into it and something may come out.”
Read: Congress downplays IB report, claims Nehru and Bose shared 'personal rapport'
The ruling party also cited examples of snooping on the late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s daughter-in-law and on a former finance minister when chewing gum was found in his office.
Ms Sitharaman said the government of the time continued snooping on Netaji’s family till 1968 even when it was unaware of his whereabouts and did not even know whether he was alive or not. When asked about the snooping case on a Gujarati woman, she said it has been clearly established that the victim herself at that time had said that there was no snooping on her.
Alleging that the BJP-led government has unleashed "a systematic and sinister propaganda of selective leaks", AICC spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said: "Why is the BJP trying to malign the great home ministers (since the IB reports directly to the home minister) and veteran freedom fighters like Vallabhbhai Patel, C. Rajagopalachari, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Govind Ballabh Pant, Gulzarilal Nanda and others?"
He demanded that Mr Modi and the home minister should explain why only "notings on file" of the two declassified files have been released while withholding the "correspondence portion" of these files.
"Does the correspondence portion contain some inconvenient truth that the Prime Minister's Office has chosen to withhold?" added the AICC spokesperson. He further alleged that BJP, in its "classic diabolical design", is seeking to malign not only Pt. Nehru but also other national leaders.
