After Mamata Banerjee declassified all 64 secret files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose lying with the West Bengal Government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Bose’s <g data-gr-id="29">kin</g> in New Delhi on Wednesday that he would declassify the secret files and that the declassification process will begin on January 23, 2016(Netaji’s birth anniversary).
The Prime Minister met about 35 family members of Subhas Chandra Bose and 15 experts at his residence, an event he earlier described as an “honour” for him.
Modi also assured Netaji’s <g data-gr-id="33">kin</g> that he would ask foreign governments to declassify relevant files on the leader. “It will be a milestone. Modi will be visiting Russia in December and he will request PM Putin to declassify the secret KGB files on Bose”, Abhijit Ray, Netaji’s <g data-gr-id="34">grand nephew</g>(Sarat Chandra Bose’s grandson) who was present at the Race Course Road meeting said. Russia, UK and Taiwan are likely to possess crucial documents on Netaji which might help unravel the mystery of Netaji’s disappearance after the said plane crash in August 1945.
The Home Minister Rajnath Singh has been entrusted with the task of declassification of the secret files, Modi told <g data-gr-id="39">family</g> members. The External Affair minister Sushma Swaraj was also present at the meeting. “The declassification process will take some time. However, our movement to get to the truth of Netaji’s disappearance will continue. The real challenge is to get the UK Government’s MI5 and MI6 to release classified information on Bose. Even the IB and R&W files in India would have information on Bose’s whereabouts after the 1945 crash”, Ray told Millennium Post after the meeting.
The family members sought declassification of all the domestic and foreign files related to Netaji whose mysterious disappearance 70 years ago continues to be an enigma. They also presented the PM with copies of books penned by Netaji and also Suresh Chandra Bose’s <g data-gr-id="41">dissention</g> report(member of the Shah Nawaz Committee — 1956). Netaji’s brother openly disagreed with the Committee’s finding that Netaji died at the Taihoku <g data-gr-id="42">aircrash</g> of 1945. “The Mukherjee Commission after visiting the crash site first <g data-gr-id="43">opined</g> officially that Netaji did not die in a plane crash in 1945. In 2006, the central Government did not accept his findings or even debate it in Parliament. Intelligence files released so far clearly indicate that Netaji’s family was snooped upon for decades after the official death of Netaji in 1956. So why was the family traced for so long?We want the truth”, Chandra Kumar Bose, family spokesperson, said.