‘Narasimha Rao proposed Bharat Ratna for Netaji’

Declassified files on Netaji were released on Friday.

May 28, 2016 04:04 am | Updated December 04, 2021 11:00 pm IST - New Delhi

Former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao had proposed to confer Bharat Ratna on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose posthumously, declassified files on Netaji released on Friday have revealed. This is an indication that the government at that time had accepted the death of the freedom fighter.

In a letter dated October 10, 1991 to then President R. Venkataraman, Rao, who was then Prime Minister, said: “It is proposed to confer the highest civilian award, namely ‘Bharat Ratna’, posthumously on Shri Subhas Chandra Bose, in recognition of his public service of the highest order and his outstanding contribution to the freedom struggle of our country.”

He said the award could be presented at a special investiture ceremony.

Birthday In another letter, dated January 19, 1992, Rao suggested to Venkataraman that the announcement of the posthumous awards to Netaji could be made on January 23, which also happens to be the freedom fighter’s birthday.

However, when Rashtrapati Bhavan issued a press communiqué dated January, 22, 1992 regarding conferment of Bharat Ratna on Netaji posthumously, the freedom fighter’s family declined to receive the award on the ground that it may be “interpreted as a slight to his memory,” according to an internal note prepared for information to the then Prime Minister.

According to the note, then Home minister had said that he had met the President who had said that there was no provision for withdrawing the award.

In 2014, speculations were rife that Bharat Ratna may be conferred on Netaji but a majority of his family members disapproved of the idea and instead demanded that the mystery of his disappearance be solved first.

Culture Secretary N.K. Sinha on Friday released online a set of 25 declassified files relating to Netaji which consisted of five files from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), four files from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), and 16 files from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) pertaining to the period 1968 to 2008.

On the occasion of the 119th birth anniversary of Netaji on January 23 this year, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had released the first lot of 100 files relating to the freedom fighter.

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