PM Modi releases Netaji files; Mamata wants ‘leader of nation’ title for Bose
25 Jan 2016 4:32 AM IST
The files were declassified and put on digital display at the National Archives of India (NAI) in New Delhi by the Prime Minister, who pressed a button in the presence of Bose family members and Union ministers Mahesh Sharma and Babul Supriyo.
Later, Modi and his ministerial colleagues went around glancing at the declassified files, spending over half an hour at the National Archives. He also spoke to the members of the Bose family. The NAI also plans to release digital copies of 25 declassified files on Bose in the public domain
every month.
On the other hand, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee demanded that Netaji be given the title of “leader of the nation”, just as Gandhiji was honoured with the title of “father of the nation”.
“The country has the right to know about the fate of Netaji. 75 years ago, Netaji left the country, but we still don’t know the fact about his disappearance. People have the right to know the truth,” Banerjee said at a function in Darjeeling organised to celebrate Netaji’s 119th birth
anniversary on Saturday.
“We want to see the files which would bring to light the details of Netaji’s disappearance. The truth about Netaji’s disappearance must come out through documentation and proof,” she said.
Banerjee said it is the government’s responsibility toward the youth and future generations to share with them the truth about Netaji’s disappearance.
Without taking names, she said: “We all know that Netaji was deprived of due respect by some people. It’s time we fulfil our duties in regard to our great leader.”
The TMC government in September last year had released 64 “secret” files related to Netaji.
In October 2015, the Prime Minister had met the family members of Netaji and announced that the government would declassify the files relating to the leader whose disappearance 70 years ago remains a mystery.
While two commissions of inquiry had concluded that Netaji had died in a plane crash in Taipei on August 18, 1945, a third probe panel, headed by Justice M K Mukherjee, had contested it and suggested that Bose was alive after that. The controversy had also split members of the Bose family too.
The first lot of 33 files were declassified by the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and handed over to the NAI on December 4, 2015.
In his reaction to the declassification, Chandra Kumar Bose, spokesperson of the Bose family and grand-nephew of Subhas Chandra Bose who was present at the ceremony, said: “We welcome this step by Prime Minister wholeheartedly. This is a day of transparency in India.”
Netaji’s nephew Ardhendu Bose, who was also at the event, said: “The Bose family and the entire country has been waiting for this moment for the last seven decades nearly. We feel that these files would be able to throw some light on it.”
HIGHLIGHTS
Here are a few revelations made by the declassification of the documents:
‘I want to sleep’ were Netaji’s last words.
According to a Khosla Commission report, Bose died at Tethoku airfield in Taipeh (Formosa), currently in Taiwan on 18 August 1945. His body was cremated two days later.
On 20 August 1945, Netaji’s body was cremated and his ashes were carried to Tokyo in the beginning of September 1945.
The British govt did not really believe that Bose was dead. Even for some months after the Japanese announced Netaji’s death, the British govt continued to discuss ways of ‘dealing with him’.
The Indian govt was “not inclined to favour” the bringing back of Netaji’s ashes kept in Renkoji temple, Tokyo, “due to possible adverse reactions from members of Netaji’s family, as well as certain sections of the public, who refused to believe in his death in the plane crash.”
According to a confidential report prepared by the Home Ministry in 1977, the Indian Embassy was paying the temple authorities in Tokyo Rs 5,000 a year for the safekeeping of the freedom fighter’s ashes.
The Indian government paid Rs 6,000 per month to Netaji’s daughter after his wife refused the offer. The payment was discontinued in 1965 after her marriage.
According to a letter written by historian Peter Simkins, Netaji’s name was not in the British government’s list of war criminals but he was considered a traitor.
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