DECLASSIFICATION OF SECRET FILES ON NETA JI
A hundred secret files
relating to Subhas Chandra Bose made public by PM Narendra Modi on the
119th birth anniversary of the freedom fighter on Saturday do not throw
new light on much of the existing narrative on Netaji, except for a
Cabinet note of February 1995 saying he had indeed died in an air crash
in Taipei on August 18, 1945. “There seems to be no scope for doubt
that he died in the air crash of August 18, 1945 at Taihoku,“ said the
note, adding that the government had accepted that position.
In fact, bulk of the secret Netaji files made public on Saturday relate
to hundreds of petitions and demands for fresh inquiry into Subhas
Chandra Bose's death made by politicians, family members and
well-wishers from 1960s till now. A host of suggestions were made
in these representations, including one by journalist Ashish Ray asking
Narasimha Rao to get a DNA test conducted of the ashes of Bose kept in
Renkoji Temple in Japan. Though bizarre, another suggestion by D N Sinha
of All India Qaumi Ekta Committee suggested that bringing Netaji's
ashes to India would fetch Congress an extra 1020% votes.