Kolkata: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday slammed the Centre for its "casual" handling of the response to an RTI query that said Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose died in an air crash in 1945. Banerjee said the response was "shocking" as it was "without evidence".
"The Centre recently gave information about Netaji through a reply under the RTI Act. I am shocked to see this unilateral decision of the central government without evidence," Banerjee said in a Facebook post.
"Netaji is a great son of the soil. Our state, the country and the whole world is proud of him. Any matter involving a person of his stature does not deserve to be handled in such a casual manner," she said.
"I have drawn the attention of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to this matter and have sought the considered stand of the central government in this regard," she added.
The Trinamool Congress supremo was referring to the Union Home Ministry's statement on Tuesday in reply to a query under the Right To Information Act, that accepted that Netaji had died in an air crash in 1945.
Many among Netaji's supporters, especially in Bengal, refused at the time -- and have refused since -- to believe either the fact or the circumstances of his death. Conspiracy theories appeared within hours of his death and have thereafter had a long shelf life, keeping alive various martial myths about him.