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Why Modi must declassify Netaji files

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Sreejith Panickar
Sreejith PanickarSep 19, 2015 | 19:27

Why Modi must declassify Netaji files

"Just as the Mitsubishi Ki-21 "Sally" bomber took off from the Taihoku Airport, the passengers heard a loud noise. The engine and the propeller flew out of the plane. The plane crashed, broke into two pieces, and exploded into flames, killing an Indian leader, a Japanese General, the pilot, and the co-pilot." Thus goes the graphic account of the plane crash that killed the legendary Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. But god is mighty, merciful, and forbearing. He left one person alive, Habibur Rahman, Netaji's adjutant, who escaped unscathed, only to paint this false picture to the rest of the world.

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Netaji's death was like the vanishing act of a skilful magician. He disappeared without leaving any trace. There are no records of the plane crash. The records in the hospital where Netaji was allegedly treated were not conclusive. No photographs of the dead bodies exist although his adjutant said he had taken a few of the "covered body" of Netaji. Those will not prove anything anyway! The death certificate produced at the crematorium was that of a Japanese soldier. Netaji being the head of a country recognised by Japan deserved a state funeral, which was not given as well.

But the ghost of Netaji - a modern day Frankenstein's Monster - soon started making appearances. Mahatma Gandhi's "inner voice" would never lie to him - it said Netaji was alive. Chicago Tribune's journalist Alfred Wagg saw Netaji in Saigon after the latter was "officially dead". One of Archibald Wavell's notes, approved by the British cabinet in October 1945, indicates they too disbelieved the death story. Netaji's elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose published in 1949 that Netaji was in Red China. Justice Mukherjee said in 2005 that Netaji might have gone to the USSR. Some people believed he was in India. Some saw him in France. It all sounded like a nursery rhyme - "Here a Bose, there a Bose, everywhere a Bose-Bose". Yet, India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was firm in his belief that Netaji was killed in the crash. It might confound even the most loyal Congressman as to why Nehru thought the onus was on Taiwan, not India to probe into the death of Netaji.

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We saw the Congress, left parties and BJP forming governments in our country. On the one hand, all governments have been sure that Netaji died in the crash, but on the other hand nobody could produce any evidence for the death. Everything was part of a state secrecy to keep the information about Netaji away from the eyes of the public - a plan that was well executed for the last 68 years.

Netaji mystery can be considered analogous to a combination puzzle, like a multidimensional Rubik's Cube. Mamata Banerjee has taken a great and significant step to go to the second level of the puzzle. She declassified the files in her possession, including the former Intelligence Branch records. For transparency or political gain? It does not really matter for the public who want to know the truth. She can hang up her boots safely now; the onus is on Narendra Modi to take decisions in the second level. But from the third level onwards, the puzzle will become a multiplayer game. We would need several other countries, most significantly Britain and Russia, to join us in completing it.

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It will take time to understand the complete details of the Netaji files Mamata has made available in Kolkata. The 64 files contain around 13,000 pages of secret information. What is known from the Kolkata files as of now is very little but interesting. More family members of Netaji and the INA cadres were snooped on by our government. The communications to and from the family members were intercepted. The nephews of Netaji, Amiyanath Bose and Sisir Kumar Bose, a lawyer and a doctor respectively, were snooped on for decades. Amiya's message to Sarat about some strange 1949 short-wave radio signals mentioning Netaji's name needs to be studied further. These files do not really need to debunk the plane crash theory. It is already done by the Taiwan government and the Mukherjee Commission. The Kolkata files may or may not have more gunpowder in them; but the real RDX stock lies far away, in the Delhi files.

Snooping on normal citizens is done not because the government worries about their safety or others' safety because of them. It just wants to check whether those people are trying to establish connections with someone "wanted". In this case, the identity of the "wanted" is clear. The year until which the snooping existed indirectly shows that Netaji was possibly alive at least till such time. The Kolkata files reveal that numerous letters intercepted by the intelligence branch were from journalists and government officials who doubted Netaji's death.

More than anything, declassifying the "intelligence files" is what Mamata should be credited for. Even Modi would need to emulate her determination to get to the bottom of the mystery, a task that will not be complete without making the intelligence records public. In a democracy, transparency has a very special place.

Keeping the demand for declassification in abeyance is akin to rejecting people's right to know. The truth about Netaji will put to rest India's biggest conspiracy and finally position him appropriately in world history. I belong to a group of independent researchers who go by the name Mission Netaji. We too got a copy of the Kolkata files. We have only started analysing them, but the mystery of Frankenstein's Monster has already left for Delhi.

Last updated: September 20, 2015 | 11:13
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