File picture: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose | Photo Credit: PTI

Kolkata: A day after Prime Minister Narendra Modi unveiled the 182-metre Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel statue, the kin of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on Thursday demanded a statue of the leader at India Gate in New Delhi. They also want the PM to declare Netaji’s birthday on January 23 as "Liberation Day".

The statue of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel is considered to be the tallest in the world. The monument – the Statue of Unity - was unveiled near the Sardar Sarovar dam in Gujarat's Narmada district.

"NDA government under the leadership of @narendramodi ji kept its commitment by unveiling #SardarVallabhaiPatel's statue on 31Oct 2018 & celebrating the day as #UnityDay. Demand rising to unveil a statue of the #LiberatorofIndia-on 23 Jan'19 at #IndiaGate Delhi & declare the day as #LiberationDay (sic)," Netaji's grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose tweeted.

Chandra Kumar Bose is also vice-president of the Bharatiya Janata Party's West Bengal unit. He, meanwhile, told news agency PTI that Bose’s statue was a demand made by a number of Indian National Army and Army veterans.

In the meantime, war veterans have also written a letter to the PM, demanding Netaji’s statue. Notably, on October 21, the PM had unfurled the national flag at the ramparts of the historic Red Fort and unveiled a plaque to mark the 75th anniversary of the proclamation of the Azad Hind government by Subhas Chandra Bose.

This was the first time a PM hoisted the tricolour at the Red Fort for the second time in a year. The Prime Minister, as the tradition goes, unfurls the national flag at the Red Fort on Independence Day.

Modi had also declared that a national award in the name of Bose would be given every year to those police personnel who contribute outstandingly in rescue and relief operations at the time of disaster.