Indian
Express: Kolkata: Wednesday, 18 February 2015.
The Prime
Minister has no power to declassify secret files relating to the mysterious
disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the Prime Minister’s Office said
in an RTI reply.
“There are no
mentions in Manual of Office Procedure or Public Records Rules, 1997, regarding
any discretionary power vested in PM to de-classify records,” the PMO said.
Sreejith
Panickar, an IT professional based in Thiruvananthapuram, had sent an RTI application
asking, “Does the PM have any prerogative to issue an order to declassify the
files and send them to the National Archives?”
Last year,
when Delhi-based RTI activist Subhash Agarwal appealed to the PMO to disclose
records relating to Netaji, it had had refused arguing that the “disclosure
would prejudicially affect relation with foreign countries”.
When under
house arrest by the British in then Calcutta, Netaji had escaped in 1941 to
seek international support and formed the Indian National Army with Japanese
help. He went missing in 1945 and since then little has been known about his
whereabouts.
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