New Delhi: As the Narendra Modi government moved to declassify more files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose to unravel the “truth” behind his mysterious disappearance, the Centre intends to re-examine the definition of what is “top secret”, “secret” and “classified” under the Official Secrets Act.
The home ministry wants to put the decades-old law in sync with the Right to Information Act, which had been attempted earlier by the UPA government but failed due to objections by the Intelligence and security agencies like RAW, which forced it into cold storage.
On Thursday, Union home secretary L.C. Goyal will meet the secretaries of key ministries like law and DoPT to take up a review of the Official Secrets Act and suggest ways to tweak key provisions of the Raj-era law.
The home ministry’s move also follows recent incidents of leak of sensitive government documents from key ministries like petroleum after the NDA came to power.
Pointing to the Modi government’s promise of more transparency and zero corruption, MHA officials said that over the past decade, the RTI has been extensively used by citizens to demand a vast range of information from the government, besides being used as a tool for social activists and civil society outfits to fight corruption and bring greater transparency and accountability in the government.
“The information which is already in the public domain does not need to be classified as secret. Once the law is amended, the files on cases that don’t jeopardise national security can be shared with the public,” an official said.
The OSA’s tweaking will have a direct bearing on the Netaji files, that are held by the government terming them “secret” and sensitive under the existing law.
The chorus of demands for declassification of nearly 90 files not yet made public has grown louder this week after a grandnephew of Netaji, Surya Kumar Bose, met Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Berlin on Tuesday and requested him declassify all files relating to his death or disappearance in Taiwan.
