A high-level committee, headed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, has been constituted to commemorate the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji  Subhas Chandra Bose in a “befitting manner”.

A notification to this effect was issued on Saturday by the Ministry of Culture in which 85 members, including the PM, have been named, which will decide on the activities for a one-year-long commemoration, beginning January 23.

The committee will comprise eminent citizens, historians, experts, family members of Netaji and persons associated with the Azad Hind Fauj.                                                     

The committee will guide the commemoration activities in Delhi, Kolkata and other places associated with Netaji and the Azad Hind Fauj, both in India as well as overseas. Other members of the committee include Union Ministers Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh, Nirmala Sitharaman, Narendra Singh Tomar, Smriti Irani, Prakash Javadekar, Jitendra Singh, Prahlad Singh Patel and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.

Minister of State for Environment Babul Supriyo and Minister of State for Women and Child Development Debasree Chaudhuri are also among the members. Former Prime Ministers HD Deve Gowda and Manmohan Singh have also been named as the members of the committee which also has Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla, Deputy Chairman Rajya Sabha Harivansh and former Lok Sabha Speakers Manohar Joshi, Shivraj Patil, Meira Kumar and Sumitra Mahajan.

Besides, West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankar and Manipur Governor Najma Heptullah as well as the Chief Ministers of West Bengal, Odisha, Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura and Meghalaya have also been included in the committee. Veteran journalist Kanchan Gupta and noted musician AR Rehman are also members of the Committee headed by the PM.

The committee will approve policies, plans, programmes and supervise and guide the commemoration of the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji including preparatory activities. The members will also decide on the broad dates for the detailed programme of celebration. The recommendations of the committee will be considered by the Centre for implementation, subject to extant rules, instructions and practices.