The grand nephew of one of India's well known freedom fighters and Congress leader Subhash Chandra Bose, Surya Bose, has said his entire family was united in their demand for receiving complete information from the Indian Government on the decision to declassify all documents related to Netaji, including the information that former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had ordered a surveillance of Netaji's family for twenty years till 1968.
In an exclusive interview given to ANI that was at times marked by emotion, Surya Bose, said, "It is not just the family; the whole of India was Netaji's family. So, it is not just the family wanting to or not wanting to. It is the people of India (who) want to have the truth come out. And so, everybody has to mobilize."
"And, I think, the movement has caught up with a huge momentum right now, and, I think, we should add to it even from outside the country and push it to an extent where the government cannot say no anymore," he added.
Admitting that there might be other pressing issues for the nation and the government of the day to address, Surya Bose, however, said, "It is not just wishing for something. It has been (our demand) for quite some years now. There is a movement going on in India, which is tough. There is quite a bit of momentum in the demand for the declassification of documents after the introduction of the RTI law."
"I think as far as declassification is concerned, to the best of my knowledge at the moment, I think the whole family is united. But there are differences of opinion as far as the plane crash theory is concerned. But the majority of the family as of now do not believe in it," Bose told Smita Prakash, Editor (News) of ANI.
"Because that (plane crash opinion) is based on what is available in the public domain, what we have seen, what the three commissions of inquiries have produced and what we have heard from reliable source," he added.
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He told ANI that the meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi was cordial and went off very well, and that he had received an assurance from the former that he would look into the declassification matter of Netaji with all the seriousness at his command.
"It was a very cordial conversation and we discussed quite a few topics. We talked about the surveillance issue and the declassification of files. Those were the main topics to start with. Then, we of course, talked about technology, technology transfer and other things," said Bose.
"He said he will look into it seriously, and then, will make a decision. He said he will try his best to open them up because he himself hasn't yet seen any of those files. So, he said he cannot judge what the contents are like, or what they could be. So, it was a very honest answer I must say," Bose told Smita Prakash during the interview.
Bose also questioned the previous UPA Government, the Prime Minister's Office and the home ministry for not accepting the family's demand for the declassification of documents related to Netaji.
He said all the previous government was "quite volatile in saying that classified files in the Prime Minister's Office cannot be declassified."
He said that members of the Bose family were told that if the declassification of the documents was allowed, the government could face a law and order problem at home, as well as problems with friendly nations.
"He (Prime Minister Modi) at least promised to look into it and try his best to do something about it. I am hopeful," Bose told ANI.
On what he thought could be in the files yet to be declassified, a candid Bose admitted, "That is a difficult thing to guess because you don't know what is in those files. There may be nothing much of substance in there, but again, something much worse than the surveillance might come out of it."
"On the other hand, there may be some disappointing news about our great leader. So, you don't know. It's a guess work we can do. The only thing is we have to wait till these files are declassified and I told him (Prime Minister Modi), and I requested him, that he should declassify all the files, and he at least said, he will do his best," said Bose.
Asked if the revelations from the documents yet to be declassified could have an upsetting impact on the lives of people, Bose said, "I think we have much more major issues in the country. I don't think that will play that a major role in upsetting people's lives or their way of thinking."
He further stated, "You can't generalize, there are fractions of people who are very, I won't say emotional, but can get excitable at short notice. So, anything can happen."
He also said that he had not sought a timeline for the declassification process to be completed, and had only requested the Prime Minister to have the files opened as soon as possible.
"He (Prime Minister Modi) can do it; he has the power to do it. The Manmohan Singh government did not do it for other reasons. They did not want to do it, because, they probably felt that it is going to bring out a lot of bad news for the Nehru dynasty," Bose told ANI.
"We want the truth to come out and also diplomatic missions and the government should no longer propagate untruth about the freedom struggle. It is not just Gandhi's non-violence, non-cooperation that brought India its freedom. It was Subhash Bose and his INA that gave the final blow, which sent the British packing, and this has been admitted by (British) Prime Minister (Clement) Atlee, by Lord Mountbatten (the last Viceroy of British India), when I and my father met him in London, in 1977," said Bose.
He was equally emphatic in saying that it was not only the Bose family that wanted closure in aright manner on the issue, but also many of his followers spread across South and South East Asia, besides in the West.
"Well I don't think it is just the family; you see there are enough Subhash Bose followers all over India, all over South East Asia who were hurt. I mean, a foreign minister of Japan, Mamoru Shigemitsu, as well as a former Prime Minister of Japan, Hideki Tojo, co-hailed Netaji as the hero of Asia. Not just a hero of India, but a hero of Asia. And in Japan, he (Netaji) is held in the highest esteem," said Bose.
Elaborating on personal equations within the family, Surya Bose told ANI, "My father (Amiya Nath Bose), I think, was the closet to the elders, Sarat Chandra and the Subhash Chandra. In fact, those three were always very close as far as you know the political movement was concerned, and they all discussed things with each other."
He added, "In fact, my father Amiya Nath and Subhash, they used to share the same bedroom and Subhashji used to come back pretty late, at midnight, after his all political meetings, and he used to wake up my father, and say 'wake up, now, let's talk about politics.'"
Surya Bose said they used to discuss Gandhi, Nehru, (Sardar) Patel, (Maulana Abul Kalam) Azad and all the other politicians, and about the political scene.
"He was very mature for his age, my father, when he went to England to study further, and set up the committee of young Congressmen, which supported the Indian freedom struggle," Bose told ANI.
He described this whole episode of surveillance on the Bose family as quite shocking.
"But that happens in the best of the families also. This was on a much larger scale; let's put government surveillance on certain individuals and particularly on a particular family," he said.
Meanwhile, another grandnephew and the official spokesperson of Netaji's family, Chandra Bose said, "Modiji assured Bose family that he'll see to it that proper scrutiny is carried out. PM said his government believes in truth, Surya Bose is very happy with the meeting."
"The momentum that has built up, everyone is asking for transparency," he added.
Chandra Bose had earlier said, "The time has now come to declassify Netaji files. Saying it would affect India's relations with other nations is simply a lame excuse. The Modi government has been talking of transparency and now it is the time to provide transparency by releasing those files which will tell us what happened to Netaji during his last years."
Bose was responding to two recently declassified IB files that had revealed that former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru's government had ordered surveillance on Netaji's kin between 1948 and 1968.
The files reveal that the IB had resumed British-era surveillance on the two Bose family homes in Calcutta at Woodburn Park and Elgin Road. (ANI)
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