Mamata declassifies Cabinet papers from 1938-47

Announcing the declassification of the files which date from 1938 to 1947 (India’s Independence), the Chief Minister said the files throw light on various decisions by the then British government including the Quit India Movement.

“From 1938 to 1947, it is a very important period of Indian history and these files provide a lot of information about the cabinet decisions taken at the period including historic events like the Quit India Movement,” said Banerjee at the state secretariat, Nabanna.

Said Sarat Chandra Bose’s grandson, Abhijit Roy, “Congress politics was changing rapidly from 1937 onwards. Bose rose to becoming the President of the Congress in 1938 and 39 and then after his tussle with Mahatma Gandhi, was expelled from the party.” 

Then he escaped from India with the help of his nephew, Sisir Kumar Bose. In the years that followed, several members of the family including Netaji’s elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose were arrested. The Cabinet records must be privy to such information”.

“There are total 401 documents about the cabinet meetings that took place. In 1938, 52 cabinet meetings took place, in 1939, 39 meetings, in 1940, 66 meetings, in 1941, 26 meetings, in 1942, 51 meetings, in 1943, 47 meetings, in 1944, 46 meetings, in 1945, 13 meetings, in 1946, 31 and in 1947, 30 such meetings took place,” Banerjee said.

Banerjee also took potshots at the Narendra Modi government’s “Digital India” initiative and said all the state government files <g data-gr-id="53">post independence</g> will be digitized in a phased manner. “Just by clamouring about digital India will not suffice, you need to show that in deeds.

You need to maintain transparency by making documents public which we are doing”, she said.

“It’s the need of the people to be <g data-gr-id="60">aware about</g> the history and we are doing that by making public all these documents. In a phased manner we will digitize all the files and people, researchers and students will get to know about the history which they have a right to know,” 

said Banerjee.

Both hard and soft copies of 401 cabinet meetings between 1938-1947 will be kept at the state archive at the secretariat library and the Kolkata Information Centre.

Besides sending copies of the digitized files to both Lok Sabha speaker as well as Rajya Sabha vice chairman, Banerjee, who is embarking on a trip to Delhi, will personally hand over a copy to President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday.

Banerjee would also be meeting Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Wednesday.”I will personally hand over a copy of the files to the president on Tuesday. Kejriwal has invited me for a seminar, which I will attend,” she said.

On September 18, the state government made public 64 classified files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.  The CM also harped on her demand for the central government to declassify 134 secret documents on Netaji.

“This is not my demand alone, but the whole country wants to know what happened to Netaji. So the centre must declassify the files on Netaji,” she said.