The recent declassification of two Intelligence Bureau files has revealed that the Congress government led by Jawaharlal Nehru had spied on the family of Subhash Chandra Bose for close to twenty years. According to a report in India Today , the files, which have since been moved to the National Archives say that special focus was on Sisir Kumar Bose and Amiya Nath Bose, the nephews of Bose and sons of his elder brother, Sarat Chandra Bose. The shadowing of members of the Bose family happened between 1948 and 1968, out of which Nehru was Prime Minister for 16 years. The files also reportedly mention that British-era surveillance was continued on members of Bose’s family at their two houses, 1 Woodburn Park and 38/2 Elgin Road.The IB, which reported directly to the PM, had reportedly tailed members of the Bose family on their travels abroad and was keen to know who they met and what they talked about.The increased focus on his nephews was believed to be due to Bose’s closeness with them during his days as a Congress activist for close to two decades. They had also written letters to Emily Schenkl, the wife of Bose. “Surveillance is conducted on those who have committed a crime or have terror links. Subhas babu and his family fought for India's freedom; why should be they placed under surveillance?” asks Chandra Kumar Bose, a Kolkata-based businessman and the grand-nephew of Bose.The only child of Netaji, Anita-Bose Pfaff says that she was unaware of the surveillance on the family though mentions that “My uncle (Sarat Chandra) was politically active until the 1950s and disagreed with the Congress leadership”. The Congress party on Friday chose to downplay the reports though, with Congress leader P.C. Chacko quoted in a report in The Times of India saying that the story was a creation of the media and that Nehru and Bose enjoyed a good relationship despite having ideological differences. “Nehru was of the view that it (independence) should be attained through peaceful means, while Subhas Chandra Bose had a different viewpoint on this issue”, he was quoted as saying.Senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh also rubbished the allegations reportedly claiming it was the work of the BJP government and the Sangh Parivar who choose to defame Nehru as “Nehruji was always against their ideology of dividing Hindus and Muslims”.The BJP though, have expressed their disappointment at the revelations, with the MoS for minority affairs Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi quoted as saying that several such secrets of the Congress party had been hidden from the public domain. “Lot of such things come out about them (Congress) and most of them are true”, he was quoted as saying. Files at the Intelligence Bureau are rarely de-classified and the West Bengal government, who have the original copy of the files, have kept it classified. Bose, who was the President of the Indian National Congress in 1939 when he quit, reportedly escaped to Germany and then to Japan where he revived the 40,000-strong Indian National Army to fight for independence. His death though, has remained shrouded in mystery and reportedly over 150 files, known as the’Netaji files’ have been kept classified by the government.Read more at: Jawaharlal Nehru spied on Subhas Chandra Bose's family for 20 years Tweet Follow @thenewsminute