West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Thursday criticized the Centre's "lack of decency" in sending an invite to her through an undersecretary for the unveiling ceremony of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's statue in New Delhi.
Banerjee also noted that an undersecretary "is not supposed to write to a CM inviting him or her".
"I recently received an invite from an undersecretary asking me to remain present at Netaji’s statue unveiling ceremony, to be presided over by the prime minister. An undersecretary cannot write to a chief minister inviting her. This reflects a lack of decency.
"The Union cultural minister, too, seemed to have found no time to write to me. I didn't go. I garlanded Netaji's statue in Kolkata this afternoon," she said.
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi will unveil a statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose at India Gate on Thursday, besides inaugurating the newly christened Kartavya Path, a stretch from Rashtrapati Bhavan to India Gate.
Earlier, Netaji’s nearly 80-year-old daughter Anita Bose Pfaff, who lives in Germany, had said that she, too, would not be able to attend the ceremony, having received the invitation on short notice.
Pfaff also said that she would want to meet the PM to discuss “the conditions and procedures” for bringing back Netaji’s remains to India from Renkoji Temple in Japan.
(Inputs from PTI)
