 "5 key things to know about the 64 declassified Netaji files")
On September 18, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee finally lifted the secrecy around some of the files related to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, a hero of India’s freedom struggle. Copies of the documents in the files, some 12,000 pages of them, were first made available to Bose’s family, then to the media, and then put up for public viewing.
The documents, kept in Kolkata’s Police Museum at present, might not have stirred up the hornet’s nest yet, but they have definitely brought back to life a seven-decade-old controversy around Bose’s death and other issues concerning him.
Among these files are personal correspondence between Bose and his elder brother Sarat Chandra, an analysis of Bose’s speeches by the British intelligence (Secret Intelligence Service, also known as MI6) and the various invitations Bose received for attending functions.
Here are key findings that have emerged from the 64 declassified Netaji files and the reactions they have led to:
1. Snooping on Bose family, doubts over death
The files not only raise questions over Bose’s death in a plane crash in Taipei in 1945 but also reveal the extent of surveillance his family was put under. Across the files are various references to Netaji “being alive”.
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However, in 1949, the state intelligence intercepted a letter written by Swiss journalist Dr Lilly Abegg to Netaji’s brother. Abegg said: “I heard in 1946 from Japanese sources that your brother is still living.”
2. Bose’s wife kept in touch with her in-laws
The files show that while Bose never returned to Europe to his Austrian wife Emilie Schenkl and their daughter, Schenkl continued to correspond with Bose’s family after his disappearance.
An intercept, recorded in the Calcutta Police Security Control’s Weekly Survey dated May 4, 1946, refers to Schenkl as a person who “claims to be the widow of Subhas Chandra Bose”.
It adds that she “joined Subhas Bose in Berlin in April 1941 and remained with him until the autumn of 1942. Bose proposed to her and they were married in January 1942. On November 29, 1942, a daughter was born. Emilie Schenkl returned to Vienna from Berlin in September so as to avoid talk.”
3. Family wants govt to speak to Russia, Britain
While welcoming the West Bengal government’s decision to declassify the 64 Netaji files, Bose’s relatives said they hoped the Narendra Modi government would also declassify similar documents in its possession.
However, Bose’s grandnephew and scholar Sugata Bose had earlier written in his book, His Majesty’s Opponent, that even in Nehru’s lifetime “some rumourmongers hinted darkly at foul play by Nehru himself”. Here, the controversy acquires political undercurrents. While the book says available evidence suggests Bose died in hospital after the crash, stories that he outlived the crash allow attacks on the Nehru regime and, by implication, the Nehru-Gandhi family and the Congress.
4. What Banerjee has to say
Reiterating that it was time the mystery surrounding Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s last days was solved, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urged the Modi government at the Centre to declassify the files on the nationalist leader in its possession.
“It has been 70 years and it is extremely unfortunate that mystery still shrouds the life of one of India’s biggest national heroes and freedom fighters. The truth must come out now. It will come out. How long will the central government keep the files hidden?” Banerjee said.
5. Now, the ball is in the Modi govt’s court
The files have little in terms of definitive evidence on Netaji’s death or disappearance post-1945, but they have documented unconfirmed reports that he might have survived the plane crash of 1945 in which he was supposed to have been killed. The release of the files in Kolkata has stepped up pressure on the Narendra Modi government to declassify those in the central government’s custody.
Though the Bharatiya Janata Party had, when it was in the Opposition, demanded declassification of the files, the Prime Minister’s Office under Modi recently turned down a request made under the Right to Information Act, citing concerns over relations with other nations.