Kolkata: Political slugfest started in the state after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that a statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose will be set up at India Gate.
TMC MP Saugata Roy said just to hide the alleged ‘tableau politics’, the BJP led Central government is trying to woo the voters.
“It is a very shameful act that the central government is installing a statue of Netaji but is refusing the tableau sent by Bengal on Netaji for the Republic Day parade. The Trinamool Congress condemns such an act,” said Ray.
Former TMC MP and family member of Netaji Sugata Bose claimed that instead of installing an idol, one should follow the teachings and principles of the saints.
“The idol can be of gold or white marble but instead of installing statues the BJP should follow the teachings of Netaji. Netaji believed in unity in diversity, BJP should follow that,” mentioned the former TMC MP.
Slamming the Central government, TMC Spokesperson Kunal Ghosh urged the BJP government to immediately ‘declassify’ Netaji files so that people of the country get to know about the hidden facts of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
Incidentally, taking to Twitter on Friday, Modi said that while the granite statue of Netaji is incomplete, a hologram statue will be installed in that place.
“At a time when the entire nation is marking the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, I am glad to share that his grand statue, made of granite, will be installed at India Gate. This would be a symbol of India’s indebtedness to him,” said Modi.
It can be recalled that despite Chief Minister writing to Modi for accepting the tableau of Bengal, Union Defense Minister Rajnath Singh claimed that since CPWD is also keeping Netaji as their theme for which Bengal’s tableau is canceled.
Netaji researcher Purabi Roy said that the news came as a ‘surprise’ to her as she had no idea about the development.
“People used to claim that we Netaji researchers do business with Netaji’s name but now business is being done openly by every government,” mentioned Roy.
However, BJP national vice president Dilip Ghosh said BJP had always respected Netaji and didn’t play politics with his name.
“Netaji is the pride of the entire country and not just Bengal. Be it during Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s regime or Modi’s regime Netaji is always given highest regard. Congress had always shown disrespect to Netaji and even maligned him,” mentioned Ghosh.
Meanwhile, state president of Forward Bloc Naren Chatterjee claimed that BJP doesn’t follow the ideologies of Netaji.
