PM Modi declassifies Netaji files

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday declassified Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose files at the National Archives of India here.

Modi released digital copies of some of the files following the government's decision to declassify files on the freedom fighter.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi tweeted: "Today (Saturday) is a special day for all the Indians. Declassification of Netaji files starts on Saturday. Will go to National Archives myself for the same."

In another tweet, Modi said: "Remembering Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on his birth anniversary. His bravery and patriotism endears him to several Indians across generations."

The release of the files "will meet the long-standing public demand" and "will also facilitate scholars to carry out further research on Netaji", a culture ministry statement said.

The National Archives received 990 declassified files pertaining to the Indian National Army (INA) from the defence ministry in 1997.

Netaji, one of the leading lights of the Indian freedom struggle, set up the INA during World War II to take on the British Indian Army.

A former Congress president and once a close associate of Mahatma Gandhi, Bose's reported death in a plane crash in Formosa, now Taiwan, in 1945 has remained a mystery.

Bose was born on January 23, 1897 in Cuttack, Odisha.