KOLKATA (Web Desk) – A descendant of Indian nationalist Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on Monday called for stripping former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru of the Bharat Ratna (India’s highest civilian award), in the light of recent revelations alleging snooping on family members of the revolutionary leader by successive Congress governments, a Deccan Herald report said.
Family spokesperson Chandra Kumar Bose said Nehru’s character is now open before the public eye since the revelations.
“Bharat Ratna is a civilian award and the character that Nehru has displayed… he doesn’t deserve the award. The people of this country demand that Nehru’s Bharat Ratna should be stripped. His Bharat Ratna should be taken away,” Chandra Kumar, Netaji’s grand nephew, said.
According to documents accessed by author and researcher Anuj Dhar, Bose’s close relatives, including his two nephews Sisir Kumar Bose and Amiya Nath Bose, were purportedly spied upon for 20 years between 1948 and 1968. Nehru was the prime minister for 16 of those 20 years.
The clamour for publicising over 150 secret documents too has been gaining ground with the Narendra Modi-led central government setting up an inter-ministerial committee headed by the cabinet secretary to review the Official Secrets Act in the context of such files.
