The Hindu: New Delhi: Thursday, June 22, 2017.
The Home
Ministry has decided not to provide any details about Netaji Subhas Chandra
Bose under the Right to Information (RTI) Act. It will instead ask applicants
to visit the website netajipapers.gov.in, launched by the NDA government in
2015, which contains declassified documents on Netaji’s life and death.
The Ministry
took the decision a month after it goofed up in a RTI response that “Netaji
died in 1945 in a plane crash in Taiwan”. Later, it had to issue a
clarification that the reply was based on a “conclusion arrived at by the then
UPA government in 2006”, and it was willing to examine any new facts if they
came up in future.
“Since all
the files and documents pertaining to Netaji have been declassified and are in
the public domain, we have directed officials not to frame any response and
instead direct them to the website,” said a senior Home Ministry official.
The “death”
of Netaji in an “air crash” is an emotive issue particularly in West Bengal and
the ruling BJP has on several occasions blamed the Congress for sidelining
Netaji in its bid to promote the “Nehru-Gandhi” family.
The Congress
has accused the BJP of conducting a “mischievous political campaign” to
appropriate Netaji.
‘Casual
handling’
West Bengal
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee had accused the NDA government of handling the
matter “casually.”
On September
18, 2015, the Bengal government made its files on Netaji public and hours later
the NDA government announced that it has constituted a panel to examine whether
the files with the Centre could be released in public domain.
On January
23, 2016 Prime Minister Narendra Modi released digital copies of 100 files
related to Netaji on netajipapers.gov.in to meet “the long-standing demand by
public to access these files.”
Digital
copies
The National
Archives of India, which maintains the website subsequently, released digital
copies of 200 declassified files in seven batches from March 29 to September
30, 2016.
Ms. Banerjee
slammed the Centre for handling the matter “in a casual manner” and claimed to
have drawn the attention of the Prime Minister.
“After
considering the reports of Shahnawaz Committee, Justice GD Khosla Commission
and Justice Mukherjee Commission of Enquiry, the government has come to the
conclusion that Netaji has died in plane crash in 1945,” said the reply to the
RTI plea filed by an activist Sayak Sen.
The official
said that instead of “has,” the reply should have said, “had,” which made it
suggest that the government had come to a conclusion about Netaji’s death.
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