Hindustan
Times: New Delhi: Monday, 19 October 2015.
Prime
Minister Narendra Modi’s decision to declassify Netaji files could lead to some
awkward moments for the government.
A right to
information activist has asked the central information commission (CIC) to
order the prime minister’s office to compensate him for refusing information on
the ground that putting the files in public domain would “prejudicially affect
relations with foreign countries”.
Modi while
hosting Subhas Chandra Bose’s family at his official residence on October 14
had announced his decision to begin declassifying all government files related
to the freedom fighter from January 23, Netaji’s 119th birth anniversary. He
even promised to write to other countries asking them to do the same.
RTI activist
Subhash Chandra Agrawal said Modi’s statement proved beyond doubt that the
stand taken by the PMO during the CIC hearing in August and earlier was
“totally wrong”.
Bose’s last
years and death remain a mystery. Some supporters and family members have
refused to accept that the freedom fighter, who fled India in 1941, died four
years later in an air crash in present-day Taiwan.
While two
government panels concluded that Bose died in the Taihoku crash, a third probe
said there was no record of the August 18, 1945 plane accident.
Agrawal
invoked Section 19 of the RTI act that empowers the CIC to direct a public
authority to compensate the complainant for any loss or other detriment
suffered.
Apart from
mental agony, Agrawal said the PMO’s refusal to share information without a
justified cause had cost him time and money.
The Prime
Minister’s Office could deposit the compensation into the prime minister’s
relief fund and send him a receipt, Agarwal said.
Chief
information commissioner Vijai Sharma though heard Agrawal’s petition seeking
disclosure of the Netaji files on August 26, he is yet to deliver the verdict
in this sensitive case.
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