Modi made the promise to 35 of Netaji’s family members whom he hosted at his official residence here, declaring, “there is no need to strangle history. This is our real Independence Day, as the files of India’s great nationalist that had been kept secret by successive governments will now be released”, Bose’s grandnephew Chandra Bose told The Hindu.
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The first round of declassification of files will take place on January 23, 2016 which is also Netaji’s birth anniversary.
On the other side, Abhijit Ray, another grand nephew, of Netaji questions that, when Indian government itself could not declassify all the files, how can we ask the other countries to do so.
He further said the government will request foreign governments to declassify the files on Netaji available with them.
Criticising the earlier governments for not taking such a choice, she stated she hoped that the Prime Minister would agree to declassify the files however was not anticipating him to give a selected date for a similar. I will meet family members of Subhas Babu at my residence.
As the Prime Minister sought to end the 70-year-old uneasy secrecy maintained by the Governments post-1947 over the fate of the founder of “Azad Hind Fauj”, he succinctly declared “there is no need to strangle history”.
Modi said this in a series of tweets after meeting members of Bose’s extended family at his residence here.
Modi said he would not only write to them but also take up the matter during his meetings with foreign leaders, beginning with Russian Federation in December, the statement said. “They shared their valuable suggestions with me”.
Union Ministers Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj, and Union MoS Babul Supriyo were present on the occasion.
However he also said, “We are welcoming it. We are very happy with it. Congress has been repeating for last several months that instead of declassifying it tomorrow, declassify it today”.
Recalling his meeting with a few members of the family in Kolkata in May, PM Modi had said, “I got an opportunity to spend a few time with them”.
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Recent revelation from de-classified files in West Bengal revealed considerable evidence that Netaji did not die in air crash on August 17 as claimed by the Japanese government and the British and American intelligence reports pointed out at his post-war movements without much clarity though.
