Mamata slams Centre for not declaring Netaji’s birthday national holiday

Kolkata, Jan 23 (IANS) West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on Tuesday, launched a scathing attack on successive Union governments for their alleged reluctance to declare the birthday of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose as a national holiday.

Mamata Banerjee targeted both the current BJP regime as well as the previous governments at the Centre as she said that her continuous endeavours in the last 20 years to ensure that January 23 was declared a national holiday, had failed.

“I have been trying my best for the last 20 years to get Netaji’s birthday declared as a national holiday. But all my efforts went in vain and I am still unable to achieve that. In India holidays are declared for political reasons but not on the occasion of the birth anniversary of the great soul. It is a matter of shame,” the Chief Minister said while addressing a programme to pay homage to Netaji on the occasion of the 127th birth anniversary of the legendary freedom fighter.

She also launched a scathing attack against the current regime at the Centre for not taking the initiative to solve the mystery behind the disappearance of Netaji.

“Before coming to power at the Centre, the current ruling party promised to make efforts to solve the mystery. But after coming to power they did not take the matter further. Whereas, after coming to power in West Bengal in 2011, we declassified 64 files related to Netaji that were preserved in our state archives,” she said.

Speaking on the occasion, Mamata Banerjee also launched a scathing attack against the Union Government on the issue of dissolving the Planning Commission and replacing it with the NITI Aayog.

“The Planning Commission was the brainchild of Netaji. They dissolved it. Even the name of a dockyard called after Netaji was changed. Now there is no planning for development. There is only planning for brutality and creating division among people,” the Chief Minister said.