The Centre will take a decision on declassification of files related to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose only after studying its impact on India’s relations with other countries, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said here on Saturday.
“The West Bengal government has made public certain confidential files related to Netaji. It is good... it needs to be studied what is there in those files before the Centre takes such a decision, its impact on the international community, our relations with other countries, neighbouring countries, needs to be studied.
“The Centre will have to take a final decision after studying that. I personally feel that people of the country have the right to know the truth on the Netaji issue.
The government will think of it and decide how and when to do it,” the Parliamentary Affairs minister told reporters here on the sidelines of an event.
Seventy years after his mysterious disappearance, >64 files running into nearly 13,000 pages were declassified> on Friday which shows some of Netaji’s family members were spied upon in independent India.
However, there was no clarity on whether Bose died in an air crash in 1945 as is widely believed.
Tucked away in police and government lockers for decades, the files that >comprise 12,744 pages were declassified by West Bengal government in the presence of Bose’s family members, who have been demanding that information on Netaji be made public.
The files have been kept inside glass cases at the Kolkata Police Museum before they are made accessible to the public on Monday.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has demanded that the Centre declassify files pertaining to the nationalist leader and said that it is unfortunate that the mystery of Netaji’s disappearance has remained unresolved for 70 years.
Some of Netaji’s family members have rejected the theory that he had died in a plane crash in Taihoku airport in Taiwan on August 18, 1945.
Also read: >Congress joins ‘declassify’ chorus
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'
