Mamata Banerjee said she believes that Subhash Chandra Bose was alive after 1945, becoming the first head of government to publicly indicate the freedom-fighter did not die in the purported air crash in Taiwan. Banerjee’s comments came soon after her government made public 64 classified files related to the freedom fighter who is said to have died on August 18, 1945 at Taihoku in Taiwan in an aeroplane crash. Banerjee said that her belief was based on whatever she has read so far on Bose, who had raised the Indian National Army (INA) for an armed struggle against the British. Basking in the attention of the historic moment, she remarked that after she has done her duty, the Centre should follow the suit.
Anyway, she has done her duty by making those files public; the Union government should also publish all the reports which they have in their possession. By making these files public, the speculations about Bose’s death would reach to some conclusion. The Centre has about 130 files that it has refused to declassify so far, one of the reasons being the revelation may harm India’s relations with other countries. After Independence, the Congress ruled West Bengal continuously till 1967, when the first United Front government came in power. Nowadays, people are digging history to blame Congress for everything. BJP and other governments are hell bent against Gandhi-Nehru family. Allegation on Sonia for looting the country to removing the Robert Vadra from VIP list, cancelling the stamps of Indira-Nehru, entire force is against the one powerful family. Yet, no one had really done much damage to this family. In this entire saga, Bose’s death is one more added episode. Let’s see what will come out from these published files.
Narendra Modi government officials had met kin of Subhash Chandra Bose and promised them to declassify his files but yet they had done nothing in this regard. We Indians deserve to know what actually happened to one of India’s dearest son. People in a democracy have a right to know about Netaji’s untold stories. Even the files lying with the Central Government should be declassified and thrown open for public scrutiny. Announcement by Mamata is heartening indeed for 1.25 billion Indians. This should serve as an eye opener for the government at the Centre. This is a welcome move; however, we should follow up on this. Time and again, governments had partially leaked but after sometime it vanished from public memory. Files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had always been a stinging issue for any government with Congress as a constituent. However, this is also an emotionally as well as sensitive issue because it is related to freedom fighter. PM should also act on his promise given to Netaji’s family and declassify the files which are with the central government. The nation has the right to know what happened to Netaji.
Mamata also announced that the record of the freedom struggle from 1937 to 1947 would be digitized in order to preserve history. Asked whether the files to be declassified can throw any clue about the alleged snooping on Netaji’s nephew by the central government from 1948 to 1968? Recently, some files relating to Bose, declassified by the central government, had revealed that the Ministry of Home Affairs had snooped on at least two of Netaji’s nephews. The files revealed that the Intelligence Bureau had kept the relatives of Netaji under close surveillance between 1948 and 1968 when Jawaharlal Nehru was the Prime Minister. Subsequent to this, family members of Netaji met Narendra Modi and urged him to declassify all Netaji’s files. Modiji remained in headlines for a week; there was debate and talks on Netaji’s files.
Why is Modi Government hesitating in releasing information about Bose? Who are they afraid of? Are they trying to protect Russia as Dr. Subramanian Swamy says? We owe so much to their families. Expressing shock and concern over snooping done on Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s family, BJP launched a scathing attack on Congress for the alleged role of its then government and said the opposition party has been snooping in its DNA. BJP also cited examples of snooping on former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s daughter-in-law and on former Finance Minister when chewing gum was found in his office.
Intelligence Bureau (IB) sleuths intercepted and copied letters written by the Bose family and even trailed them on foreign tours. Bose’s family reacted to reports with “shock” and said it was a “poor reflection” on the quality of democracy at that time. Congress however debunked such reports about snooping on Netaji’s family by the then government.
The fear that Subhash Chandra Bose may return, and even perhaps, Sardar Vallabhai Patel was stronger than Nehru. So he used the Russians to see to it that there is no challenge to his PM’s chair. And the Russians wanted only Nehru to be the head of India. The same continued even when Lal Bahadur Shastri was the PM and the Russians wanted Indira Gandhi to be the PM.
Some also claim that, Netaji did not die in the Taihoku plane crash. In fact, he escaped to Soviet Union, in the hope of restarting the freedom movement with the help of Russians. But Stalin betrayed him, and imprisoned him in Yakutsk (Siberia) concentration camp (Gulag). He was tortured there, but was alive till 1958. This whole fact was known to Nehru and his cohorts. Basically, Nehru insisted on Stalin that Soviet Union should not free Netaji. This is because if Netaji returned to India, Nehru will lose his prime ministership, due to the former’s popularity. Moreover, Nehru knew that the British gave freedom to India, not because of non-violent movements of Gandhi and Nehru, but because of the violent insurrections that occurred in the British Indian army and navy, in support of INA (Indian National Army). That is why, the Congress government, after independence, created propaganda, mainly by writing history books for students, that it was Gandhi and Nehru who delivered us freedom from the British rule.
Netaji’s family has their own version to believe. Netaji reportedly died of injuries sustained in a plane crash in the Japanese-occupied Formosa (Taiwan) in August 1945. However, many have refused to accept the theory. In fact, Bose was not honoured with the Bharat Ratna because of this controversy. The family also pointed to the report of the Justice M.K. Mukherjee Commission — constituted by the previous National Democratic Alliance government to probe Netaji’s disappearance — that said the Centre did not give the permission to commission vital documents, thus hampering the inquiry. Now, files pertaining to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in the State government’s custody will be put in the public domain. Let’s see what would be revealed in these files further or these documents will put full stop to all speculations regarding the death of Bose.
