Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s 119th birth anniversary on Saturday was particularly significant as the date was chosen for the release of 100 declassified files, but it’s an irony that despite the files now being made public no clear evidence has emerged on whether the iconic hero who waged war to free his country survived or died in the 1945 aircrash near Taipei.
Only one 1945 Cabinet note states his death did take place, but without any new evidence. In many ways, the enduring Bose mystery will perhaps never be solved. Numerous commissions haven’t been able to fit all pieces of the puzzle together, nor has the government’s action in placing declassified files in the public domain made anyone wiser.
The Bose mystery will thus live on. At the political level, some obviously hope that opening the Netaji files will fetch votes in the West Bengal elections. But it is hard to say definitively if the BJP will gain any traction in PM Narendra Modi being the prime mover behind the bold step to open the lid.
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee pre-empted the Centre’s move by declassifying 64 files lying with the state government long before January 23, 2016. The Congress, that for long clung to the belief that the mystery must endure, might take a hit as it is exposed now as a wet blanket, its many premises on why the files shouldn’t be thrown open being quite risible.
Not even the theory that Jawaharlal Nehru had the most to gain by suppressing the truth about Netaji, who had once been Congress president, stands the test as there was so little to hide. The file on a purported letter by Nehru to the British PM at “10 Down Street” is so dubious that few would deem it genuine. It is, however, difficult to believe even in the immediate post-war era, India’s foreign ties would have suffered if the files were declassified.
What is there in these files that could upset Britain, Russia, Japan, Germany, China or Formosa (Taiwan) or any other nation where Netaji left his footprint as an unconventional military strategist? Subhas Bose’s contribution to the freedom struggle is in no way diminished by whatever has taken place in the last 70 years. While freedom of information activists will be gladdened by the release of the Netaji files, Bengalis can still look up in absolute fascination to a symbol of the region’s golden age. As the years roll on, Netaji’s deeds can only gain lustre. Let the mystery endure forever: it may be far more fascinating than the truth.
