The nearly 13,000 pages of ‘secret’ information that were made public on Friday revealed the extensive surveillance carried out on Netaji’s family members, particularly his elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose and nephews Sisir Kumar and Amiya Nath.
There are at least eight files on Sarat Bose alone, and two files on the nephews, giving details about how sleuths tracked their each and every movement. From intercepting letters to and from their Kolkata residence to maintaining records of the meetings they attended and speeches made, the Bose family were constantly under the scanner particularly in the immediate <g data-gr-id="31">post independence</g> era. Researchers and some Bose family members believe that the snooping was a result of the Indian government not buying the plane crash theory and believing that Netaji was still alive.
“There are more than a dozen instances of reports claiming Netaji to be dead before the August 18, <g data-gr-id="40">1945</g> plane crash. In fact in 1942, it was reported that he died in a plane crash,” researcher and author Jayanta Chowdhury said. “So it is quite natural for the authorities, be it the British or the Indian, not to buy the Taihoku plane crash theory,” said Chowdhury, who deposed before the Justice MK Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry which in 2006 concluded that Bose did not die in the alleged air crash of 1945.
Corroborating Chowdhury’s claims is a document dated July 17, 1942 addressed to the home department, government of India, stating that “a newspaper Hindusthan Standard alone of all newspapers of Bengal which appeared definitely to discredit the news of Bose death in a plane crash”.
Chandrachur Ghose, founder member of ‘Mission Netaji, an organisation spearheading the declassification campaign, also opined that snooping on the Bose family was <g data-gr-id="33">testament</g> of the Indian government believing Netaji to be alive after 1945.
“The Justice Mukherjee Commission has already established that Netaji did not die in the plane crash. These classified files which reveal the extensive snooping only concretise the fact that the Nehru government too believed Netaji was alive,” Ghose said.
“The fact that snooping continued for years after independence is evidence of the fact that the authorities wanted to ascertain the whereabouts of Netaji.” Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in her address at the declassification event, also talked about inferences of Netaji being alive after 1945.
“There are mentions here about Netaji after 1945 which indicate that he might have been alive,” Banerjee, who examined a few of the documents, said. Among the documents debunking the plane crash theory is a report published in Blitz Bombay on March 26, 1949 which stated: “Plane Crash Theory Unconfirmed”. “It is not known whether the news of living Bose is based upon positive evidence of his whereabouts suspected to be in Red China or Soviet Russia or upon what is described as the negative evidence of the failure of the best brains to the <g data-gr-id="37">Anglo American</g> Security Services to dig up slightest evidence in confirmation of the story of Bose’s death in a plane crash and subsequent cremation with full military honours in Tokyo.”
Left welcomes declassification of Netaji files
West Bengal Left Front Chairman Biman Bose on Saturday welcomed the move by the state government to declassify 64 files relating to Subhas Chandra Bose. “We welcome the move that the state has declassified the 64 Netaji files. We would request the Centre <g data-gr-id="88">too</g> to declassify the files it has. We want the truth about Netaji to come out,” Bose said. When asked why didn’t the Left Front declassify it during its <g data-gr-id="92">34 year</g> rule, Bose said,”I don’t know, so I can’t comment on it,”. <g data-gr-id="89">Sixty four</g> files running into nearly 13,000 pages relating to Netaji were declassified on Friday. The files were displayed in glass cases in Kolkata Police Museum and would be made accessible to the public from Monday.Of the 64 files, 55 were with Kolkata Police while another nine were with the state police.