New Delhi: The UK has sought more time to decide whether to declassify the secret files in its possession on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, his family said on Sunday.
Bose’s family had recently approached the British authorities demanding making public all the files relating to his sudden disappearance in 1945.
“My sister Madhuri Bose has approached the government of UK. She has already received several responses admitting that there were files on Subhas Bose, but they would require more time to take a decision about the de-classification,” Netaji’s grandnephew Surya Kumar Bose said.
Surya Kumar Bose, who had met Prime Minister Narendra Modi during his visit to Berlin in April, said the Bose family will also keep asking the governments of the USA, Russia and Japan to open up the files they have on Netaji.
“In post-war India, Subhas Chandra Bose was a threat to Nehru and Patel. Hence the classified files on Subhas are of immense importance,” he said. Complimenting West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for declassifying over 60 files relating to Bose, he said it was time for the Centre to unravel the mystery and make public the information relating to Netaji.
“We do not know if all the files were opened up or some were eaten up by moths or bureaucrats. This move will certainly put pressure on the Prime Minister to open up his Pandora’s box! But it would be very much more difficult for Narendra Modiji to open up all the classified Bose files,” said Surya from Berlin. About 64 files running into nearly 13,000 pages relating Bose were declassified last month by the West Bengal government.
The files showed some of his close family members were spied on in independent India, but there was no clarity whether he died in an air crash in 1945 as is widely believed. Asked when the family approached the British authorities, he did not specify, but indicated it was done recently.
