West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has sought to strike a chord with the people as she >declassified 64 files pertaining to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, a freedom fighter who enjoys legendary status in the State.
Putting >oblique pressure on the Centre to follow suit and declassify the Bose files lying with it, Ms. Banerjee said on Friday: “Truth must prevail … I think it is the beginning. Let the Central government also disclose the files and let the people judge.”
The BJP, which wants a foothold in the eastern State where it has had no presence, had promised to declassify the files but the Centre has been sitting on the demand for more than a year after the saffron party stormed to power in the Lok Sabha polls. Ms. Banerjee’s move is bound to put pressure on the Centre before the State goes to the polls next year. Ms. Banerjee herself was present at the Kolkata Police Museum where the declassified files are kept for public viewing. Though she was not present at the official ceremony when the DVDs containing the files were handed over to the kin of Netaji, she spent a long time perusing the files later.
The 64 files that >comprise 12, 744 pages are being kept at Kolkata Police Museum, which is housed in the Office of Deputy Commissioner of Kolkata Police, North Division on 113 APC Road. It will be open for public from September 21.
The descendants of Netaji’s family hailed Ms. Banerjee for the decision to bring the files in the public domain and said that it was now incumbent on the Centre to declassify the files in their possession.
Also read: >Congress joins ‘declassify’ chorus
Soon after Ms. Banerjee’s decision to make the files public, the Prime Minister’s Office contacted Netaji’s family members who are likely to have an audience with the Prime Minister in October.
Speaking to journalists, Ms. Banerjee said that while going through the documents she found many which refer to the possibility of Netaji being alive after 1945. On arguments that a decision to declassify files may hamper the country’s ties with other nations, Ms. Banerjee said that there was no such possibility.
From The Hindu archives
>Mr. Subhas Bose missing from his residence, search by relatives and friends
"He was much depressed that, at such a critical juncture, the Congress leadership had failed the country."
>Whereabouts of Mr. Subhas Bose
“It has been common talk in certain quarters in this country for some time that Mr. Subhas Chandra Bose is either in Rome or in Berlin and has entered into a pact with the Axis powers"
>Mr. Subhas Bose reported killed in air crash
A Bangkok dispatch to the German News Agency says that two leaders of the Indian community in Siam were killed in an aeroplane crash off Japan.
>'Brave son of India' - Congress leaders' tributes
"The tragic end of Subhas, while he was still in the prime of life, will cause deep sorrow to all those who knew him."
>Mr. Subhas Bose not involved in air accident
The German Official News Agency, while announcing the aeroplane crash, did not list Mr. Bose among the victims
>Netaji meets Hitler
The Berlin Radio was announcing that Hitler had received Subhas Chandra Bose at his headquarters.
>Bose dead, fatally wounded in air crash: Japanese report
An Agency said that Mr. Subhas Chandra Bose died in a Japanese hospital from injuries received in an air crash.
>Subhas Bose's last days
Mr. Subhas Chandra Bose was being brought to Tokyo as the first step in his transfer to Manchuria where he was expected to seek safety and protection from the Russians
>Pandit Nehru's views on Subhas Bose
'Japanese report that Bose was killed in a plane crash is not believed in British and American military circles'
