Netaji’s kin meets PM Modi, seeks declassification of secret files

PTI
BERLIN, APRIL 14

Amid a row over reported snooping of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s family decades back, his grand nephew met Prime Minister Narendra Modi here and claimed to have got an assurance that his demand for declassification of all secret files related to the freedom fighter would be looked into. Surya Kumar Bose met Modi last night and sought declassification of all secret files related to Netaji.
The meeting took place immediately after Surya Kumar attended a reception hosted in Modi’s honour by India’s Ambassador to Germany Vijay Gokhale.
Surya later said he had urged the Prime Minister that the papers should be declassified immediately as he was shocked at the recent reports that the government of Jawaharlal Nehru had “spied” upon Netaji’s family.
Asked about Modi’s response, he said the Prime Minister assured that he would look into the matter right away as he too felt that the “truth should come out.”
Surya attacked the Nehru government, saying it was “shocking” that a government of independent India had spied upon Netaji’s family.
“The government should get the truth out,” he said.
Surya said there should an investigative commission to go into the matter to bring out the truth.
“The government also should stop spreading lies that only non-violence had led to the Independence as it could not be won without the contribution of Subhas Bose,” his nephew said.
Asked about the earlier Commissions of inquiry, he said, “the first two were totally bogus.” He said the Mukherjee Commission had done more but it did not have investigative powers.
Surya had on Sunday said, “Subhas Bose did not belong just to his direct family. He had himself said that the whole country is his family.
I do not think it’s just the duty of the family to raise this issue (of declassification of Netaji files).”
Surya, the president of the Indo-German Association in Hamburg, was invited by the Indian Embassy to attend the reception for Modi.
In an RTI reply, the Prime Minister’s Office has refused to declassify secret files relating to Netaji arguing that the “disclosure would prejudicially affect relations with foreign countries”.

Netaji kin hit the streets

PTI
KOLKATA, APRIL 14

The family members of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose today hit the city streets demanding declassification of files on the freedom fighter.
“We want both the central and state governments to declassify files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose immediately. This is not an appeal to them but it is our demand,” Netaji’s grandnephew Chandra Kumar Bose told reporters here.
“There are around 64 secret files with the state government and over 100 files with the central government…. The common man wants to know what has happened to the leader,” Bose said.
Members of Netaji’s family took out a procession from the Indian Association Hall in central Kolkata to the INA Memorial on Dufferin Road.
He claimed that 23 members of Netaji’s family had written six times to Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee requesting her to declassify the files that were with the state government but got no response.
“We want her to declassify all the files and it’s her duty to do so. But if she fails to do so, she must step down from her chair,” Bose said.
He said that his elder brother Surya Kumar Bose met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Berlin yesterday adding “we have got a very positive response from the Prime Minister.”
“He (Modi) said that his government believes in truth, Surya Bose is very happy with the meeting.”
Bose alleged history had been “distorted and suppressed” by successive Congress governments at the Centre.
“It was not on August 15, 1947 that the tricolour was hoisted for the first time on Indian soil; it was on April 14, 1944 under Netaji’s leadership that the tricolour was hoisted in Moirang in Manipur,” he said.n Krishna bose, former MP and wife of Netaji’s nephew Sisir Bose, said though declassification was needed, the hullabaloo that was being made was unwanted.
“We all want declassification of the files but there was no need to create such an uproar. I do not like it. The PM has gone to Germany for some serious work and there was no need to disturb him there,” she told.