Marking the 119th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who met Bose’s family members on Saturday, released 100 files which were so far classified as secret and kept away from public view. With this, he has met the “long-standing public demand” to release the files. The files were released from the National Archives of India.
Modi in the morning tweeted saying "Today is a special day for all Indians. Declassification of Netaji files starts today. Will go to National Archives myself for the same.”
The documents are expected to debunk various theories of Netaji’s death which have been floating around for many years. It is said that the Congress party and then PM Jawaharlal Nehru had a big role to play in the events following Netaji’s death.
Prime Minister has said that they have only circumstantial evidence regarding the freedom fighter’s death, but has requested other foreign countries to share any document that would help in revealing how he really died.
The Ministry of Culture would be running the website which had over 24,000 visitors by 2PM on Saturday.
The website
As you enter the website, the patriotic song Kadam kadam badaye ja plays in the background.
A series of documents are lined up. There are 10 pages and each page has 10 documents each.
You could just click on the file name. A page with a description of the file including year of publication, ministry, subject and brief would open.
It gives the reader option to open the files in PDF or Flipbook form.
What files are these?
The files are a mix of letters, articles, pictures and other documents. Many files and letters about Bose’s ashes have been included.
Files declassified on Saturday relate to the formation and working of the three committees, the Shah Nawaz Committee of 1956, the Khosla Commission, which functioned between 1970 and 1974 and the Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry which operated between 1999-2006.
The NAI now plans to release digital copies of 25 declassified files on Bose in the public domain every month.
Two files on the communication between Netaji's associate Sameer Guha and Subhas Bose.
File from 2006 on the communication between Forward Bloc leaders and the central government.
Construction of the Indian National Army memorial.
Conferring Bharat Ratna to Subhash Bose.
On transfer of Netaji's ashes from Japan to India.
Files about congress offering money to the widow of the Netaji.
Documents from 1995 that talk about the disappearance Subash Chandra Bose. Netaji’s nephew Ashish Roy had written a letter to principal secretary of the then Prime Minister.
Treasures and assets of National army.
Bose's body was cremeted with all civilian and Army rights two days after he died, on August 20, 1945.
However there has been no information about Bose found post August 1945 found yet.
Previously, a UK-based website – www.bosefiles.info - had released a series of witness statements seeking to solve the controversy over the death of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. It claimed that its 25 years of investigation and research on the death have showed that Netaji died in a plane crash near Taipei airfield in Taiwan on August 18, 1945.
This page will be updated with more information