Nehru's letter on Subhas Chandra Bose an 'invented text', conspiracy to malign Congress: Shashi Tharoor

Shashi Tharoor has claimed that 'Nehru letter' that allegedly addressed Subhas Chandra Bose as a war criminal, was purported for political mileage.

New Delhi: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi released 100 secret files on freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose in New Delhi, former Union Minister Shashi Tharoor on Sunday said that few tempered documents were released along with Netaji files purposefully to tarnish the image of Jawaharlal Nehru and Congress party.

Tharoor, without naming anyone in his speech, said, "There has always been section of people in the country who aimed to demonise Nehru after his death, to gain some political mileage...by inventing stories and tales about him....by distorting facts about him."

Tharoor was talking to CNN IBN and said that though it's uncertain yet if Congress would take any legal action over 'Nehru' letter but mentioned that the party would definitely want to launch a probe into the case as the letter has been circulating for a while.

Adding further he said that the Nehru letter has been circulated 'politically' to distract people from the damp squib of Netaji files, which has been released into pieces. "The people behind it actually want to create a drama around Nehru. They want to use historical evidence for current political mileage," he said.

Launching an attack on the Centre government over causing delay to the release of Netaji files, Tharoor said, "Modi government waited for January 23 (Subhas Chandra Bose's birth anniversary) to release the files which caused much delay to the process. Also, the government in Centre should have released the entire file on Bose and not into batches."

Tharoor also claimed that Nehru and Bose were good friends in real life and reports of rivalry between them is completely baseless.

On Saturday, PM Modi released at least 100 secret files of Subhas Chandra Bose, out of which a letter written by Jawaharlal Nehru to the then UK Prime Minister Clement Attlee, stirred a controversy. Nehru, in his letter had allegedly addressed Bose as a 'war criminal'.