A “fake” letter purportedly written by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru to his British counterpart referring to Subhaschandra Bose as a war criminal has irked the Congress.

The prominence the “fake” letter got on Saturday, when Prime Minister Narendra Modi de-classified 100 files on Bose, made the Congress see a “criminal conspiracy” to deflect the attention from the “miserable failure of the Central government on all fronts”.

The Congress also refused to engage in a debate over Bose’s death citing his daughter Anita’s assertion that the founder of the Indian National Army died in an air crash in Taiwan. “We do not want to enter into a debate with any distant relative. We respect what has been said by his (Bose’s) own daughter,” senior Congress spokesman Anand Sharma told reporters here.

Sharma wanted the Centre to de-classify all files related Bose in one go instead of the staggered approach it has taken. “The way the prime minister has carried this out raises doubts about intentions of Modi government,” he said slamming attempts by the government to raise a controversy and misguide the people through a “mischievous political campaign”.

The purported letter by Nehru to British Prime Minister Clement Atlee refers to Bose as a “war criminal”.

Sharma said the circulation of the “fake letter” was done with the intention of showing Nehru in poor light. “We will take all measures to not only expose but to ensure that they are punished under the law of the land,” the Congress leader said.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar saw an ulterior motive of the BJP government on declassification of files related to Bose. “BJP, which has nothing to do with the struggle for Independence, by declassifying files related to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose is basically making an effort to create conflict between different streams of ideology in the struggle for country's Independence,” Kumar told reporters in Patna.