Kolkata: Ending years of wait on classified information on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and his family members, the West Bengal government on Friday declassified 64 such files which were in the possession of the Kolkata police and West Bengal police.
The files, comprising almost 12,000 pages, were first released to Netaji’s family and then to journalists and the public.
What the files reveal
The secret documents showed that some members of his family, who were snooped on by the government, believed that the nationalist leader was alive after 1945, the year he was reportedly killed in an air crash.
For instance, in 1949, the state intelligence intercepted a letter written by Swiss journalist Dr Lilly Abegg to Netaji’s brother Sarat Chandra Bose. In it, Abegg said, “I heard in 1946 from Japanese sources that your brother is still living.”
A declassified file contained a letter written by Netaji’s nephew S K Bose to his father and Netaji’s elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose in 1949 that he had information of Netaji going on the air on a radio channel.
“Peking Radio announced that Subhas Chandra Bose would broadcast. The radio also gave details regarding the time and wavelength of the broadcast. The Hongkong office tried to listen in according to the details but nothing could be heard. I have asked the guard to let me have further details if possible,” he had written to his father from London on December 12, 1949.
The letter was intercepted by Kolkata Police’s intelligence bureau following a government order, according to the declassified files. Netaji had gone missing in 1945 and some of his family members have rejected the theory that he had died in a plane crash in Taihoku airport in Taiwan on August 18 that year.
Another letter written by Sarat Chandra Bose to one Miss Lilly Abegg of Switzerland on December 28, 1949, stated “if you had heard in 1946 from Japanese sources that my brother (Subhas) was still living, it strengthens my conviction more than if you had heard it from British and American sources.”
The files also have a number of letters written by Sarat Bose and received by him, which were intercepted mostly at the general post office in the city or the post office at Elgin Road, where the family lived.
The files show that American and British Intelligence agencies believed Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was alive during 1948-49 and he was behind communist movements going on in Southeast Asia at that time.
Also in the files are details of a covert operation that continued for years, which included tracking of letters exchanged between members of the Bose family and various individuals. Anyone close to the family would also be put through a thorough background check — including scrutiny of their political leanings, education and relation to the Bose family — the files revealed.
The files also comprise of various newspaper reports — mostly in English and Bengali — on the political activities of the family.
Didi says Netaji did not die in 1945 air crash
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Friday said that the Netaji Subash Chandra Bose files declassified by her government have letters showing he might have been alive after 1945 when he mysteriously disappeared and that his family was snooped upon.
She also demanded that the Centre declassify files relating to the nationalist leader who went missing mysteriously 70 years ago.
“There are letters in the files where some people had said that Netaji might have been alive after 1945 (when he reportedly died in a plane crash),” Banerjee, who visited Kolkata Police Museum where the 64 declassified files are kept, told reporters.
“I did not get much time to go through the files. I have seen a bit of it and I have seen letters which were intercepted even after 1945 and documents which indicated that Netaji’s family was snooped upon,” she told the media.
Demanding that the Centre declassify files with it on Netaji, she said it is unfortunate that the mystery regarding his disappearance has remained unresolved for 70 long years.
“We do not know what happened (to Netaji). It is unfortunate. How long you can keep it under secrecy ?” she said.
“This (declassification of Netaji files by her government) is the beginning of the future. The people should know the truth. Let the Central government also declassify the files on Netaji.
“Let good sense prevail on all of us. You cannot suppress the truth. Let truth come out. It will come out today or tomorrow,” Banerjee said.
Asked to comment on the perception that India’s relations with some countries might be affected if files on Netaji with the Centre were declassified, the chief minister said, “Now we have got independence. There is no harm in honouring those leaders who got us independence. We should salute them. Before declassifying the files we have seen that internationally nothing will happen. If we have bilateral relation with a country it is necessary to review it.”
On questions whether there was any attempt to hide something, she said, “What you can guess, I can also. Let the country face the reality. There is nothing to hide. Why don’t you (Centre) declassify the files ?”
On whether there might be law and order problem after the declassification, she said, “I don’t think there will be any. It is a mere excuse. If there is any law and order problem, we are there to tackle it.