Introduction
There has been an aura of mystery in the sudden
disappearance of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in 1945. The most followed story
that tried to do away the sudden disappearance of this great patriot was that
he died tragically in a plane crash in a place near Taiwan. But there are other
stories that rubbish this claim away by saying that the Netaji was very much
alive even after Indian independence. Moreover, the relatives of Netaji were
snooped upon by the Indian government post independence for no fault of theirs.
These details have been kept in some classified documents by the Indian
government these many years, despite the demand for their declassification. For
many years, the relatives of the patriot have been asking for the
declassification of documents that tell about his last few years.
Snooping of Netaji Family
Immediately after the independence, the Jawaharlal
Nehru-lead Indian National Congress government ordered the surveillance of the activities
of the close relatives of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. No explanation was given
on that. Most of the time the surveillance was non-intrusive and many letters
and other forms of correspondence were intercepted and copied before handing
them over to the family members. Since independence, the family members of this
great patriot were crying foul on this type of behaviour of the security
agencies. But nobody showed any interest in this issue. The declassification of
the files on Netaji would embarrass the previous Congress governments that
ruled the country for a long period of time under Jawaharlal Nehru, Indira
Gandhi, Rajiv Gandhi, Narasimha Rao and Dr. Manmohan Singh. That is the reason
why the Indian National Congress tried to be guarded in its response on this
issue. Most of the time, the party tried to distance itself from this by saying
that its government never did anything like that to disgrace the service of
this great son of Indian soil. Even the
Narendra Modi-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) also chose to sit on this
issue due to some strange and unknown reason, despite its election promise that
truth about the life of Netaji would be brought to the public domain.
West Bengal Government Takes Lead
With election in West Bengal State Assembly is coming in the
next year (2016), the state Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee took a decision on
this matter and declassified about 64 files in the possession of the state
government. She also openly challenged the central government to declassify the
remaining files pertaining to Netaji in its possession and tell the truth about
the true son of the soil. She knows that her state has high regard for Netaji
Subhash Chandra Bose. She wants to enjoy the benefits of early bird on this
matter. Undoubtedly, this would force the central government to take steps on
the declassification of files and portray the Indian National Congress as well
as its first family in poor light. If the leakage of certain portions of the
documents is to be believed, the Gandhi family has to do some hard explaining
to wriggle itself out of the situation. Otherwise, the Indian National Congress
would not be able to open its account in that state for many years to come.
Even Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) would have to explain why its government at
the centre has not declassified the documents. Let us see how the situation
unfolds itself in the coming days.
