Declassifying Netaji files a big achievement for Modi sarkar in 2015
With the sun setting on 31st December 2015 and a sunrise at dawn on 1st January 2016 - India awakes to a new beginning!
The year 2015 saw the turn of events which challenged the establishment on many counts. There have been multi-crore scams, testing tolerance, declassification of Netaji files to find out the truth what happened to the liberator of India, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
The people of the nation today want correction of distorted history and demand of a transparent government.
People of India have always been tolerant for the last 68 years. However, the establishment has always taken people for granted! In 21st century India, this attitude of the establishment is no longer being accepted by the masses.
The government, therefore, will have to adjust to the changes in the attitude of the people who have elected them. The history of Indian independence was written to please the government in power. For years, the nation never realised that distortion of facts was done and the true story of sacrifice and heroic battles fought by many have never found a place in our history books.
A nation cannot prosper if it loses the thread of its heritage, culture and history. Learning distorted history will not allow us to know our roots and it is the moral duty of the establishment to put forward the correct history. The present and future generations will never forgive us if we do not teach them the true history of our great nation.
The mass movement across the country for declassification of files pertaining to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose became a global movement during 2015. The Trinamool Congress (TMC) government in West Bengal and the BJP-led NDA government, at the centre realised that the time has come to take suitable steps to release the files kept hidden by successive governments.
The credit for this movement goes to many individuals, activists and organisations, who have been fighting for many years. The governments since independence, not only suppressed all facts, but also ensured that the true history of the Indian freedom struggle does not reach the people.
The TMC government in West Bengal released 64 files on 18th September 2015. These files pertain to Sarat Chandra Bose, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, members of the Bose family, Indian National Army (INA) officials, Congress leaders and friends who were kept under surveillance by the Congress government for a couple of decades after independence, from 1948 to 1968.
Netaji's nephews - Amiya Nath Bose and Sisir Kumar Bose were snooped upon round the clock. The disclosures exposed the surveillance conducted by the central and West Bengal state government on Netaji's family. Mamata Banerjee, chief minister of West Bengal threw up a challenge to the central government to release the files under their custody.
The NDA Government under the leadership of Narendra Modi took up the challenge of declassification of Netaji files, which none of his predecessors dared to take up. On 14th of October, 2015, history was made when 50 members of the Bose family and associates were invited for the first time by Prime Minister Modi, to his official residence at 7 Race Course Road, New Delhi.
During the discussions, PM Modi announced that his government will declassify all Netaji files available with the central government and will also take up the issue with foreign nations, requesting them to release files on Netaji and the INA, which they may be holding since the last 70 years.
This action on the part of the prime minister ushers in a new era of transparency in India. The process of declassification will commence on 23rd of January 2016.
This effort on the part of the government of India, will not only reveal what happened to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, after 18th August 1945, but also correct the distorted history written and taught about our freedom struggle.
As the curtain goes down on 2015, new hope and transparency awaits the people of our nation in the new year.