Netaji kin urges PM to name Kolkata Port Trust after Subhas Chandra Bose

Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose has requested Prime Minister Narendra Modi to name the Kolkata Port Trust after the legendary freedom fighter, saying that it has a historical connection to him. The central government in June gave the approval to rename Kolkata Port as Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port, considering his multifaceted genius as an eminent jurist, academician, thinker and leader of the masses."

"It would not be appropriate to name the Port as Syamaprasad Mookerjee Port, particularly, as Netaji Subhas Docks already exist under the Port Authority," Bose said in a letter to the Prime Minister's Office on Wednesday.

The Kolkata Port has a historical connection to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the former vice-president of the state BJP said in the letter.

"Netaji was arrested by the British and taken under captivity to Mandalay Jail (in present-day Myanmar) in January 1925, using this Port, therefore, it is definitely appropriate to name the Kolkata Port as Netaji Subhas Port," the letter read.

"Both Syamaprasad Mookerjee and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose are stalwarts in their own right, but it would be highly improper to compare the two National Icons," it said.

Mookerjee, the country's first industry minister, was a leader of the Hindu Mahasabha and founder of the Bharatiya Jana Sangh, the political arm of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), which later became the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Bose had on September 29 urged the prime minister to reconsider naming the Kolkata Port Trust after Mookerjee, claiming that "it would be an insult" to him as there already has a dock there in Netaji's name.

He had written to Modi and BJP heavyweights Amit Shah and J P Nadda in September, flagging certain "issues and concerns", which, according to him, should be addressed by the saffron camp, ahead of 2021 West Bengal assembly polls. Bose had unsuccessfully contested from Kolkata South constituency in 2019 Lok Sabha election as a BJP candidate.

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