The Narendra Modi government has kept its promise and has de-classified all records relating to Netaji Bose and Azad Hind Fauj.
According to the reports, the Union government has placed all the records associated with Netaji Bose in the National Archives of India, the Minister of State (MoS) of Culture and Tourism, Prahlad Singh Patel conveyed to Lok Sabha in a written reply.
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Accordingly, a total of 304 declassified records and files have been transferred to the National Archives of India from the Prime Minister’s Office, Cabinet Secretariat, Ministry of Home Affairs and Ministry of External Affairs for permanent retention. Out of the 304 files, 303 files are already uploaded on the Netaji web portal, www.netajipapers.gov.in, said Patel.
The National Archives of India is the custodian of declassified files and records of the Government of India. In 1997, the National Archives of India had received 990 declassified files pertaining to the Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauj) from the Ministry of Defence.
Reportedly, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) had declassified another 1030 files pertaining to the Khosla Commission and Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry in 2012. Out of these, 271 files were released from the Khosla Commission and 759 from Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry.
The 58 files out of the 304 files released recently were from Prime Minister’s Office, 37 from MHA, 200 from Ministry of External Affairs, and 9 from the Cabinet Secretariat. All these files are already available to the public under the Public Records Rules, 1997, said Minister of State of Culture and Tourism, Prahlad Singh Patel in a written reply in the Lok Sabha.
In the past, the Narendra Modi government has undertaken various measures to immortalise the legacy of Netaji and the INA. In January this year, PM Modi had inaugurated a museum of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose at the Red fort.
PM Modi has also renamed three Island of the Andaman & Nicobar Islands, on the occasion of the 75th anniversary of Bose hoisting the national flag at Port Blair. The Ross Island was renamed to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Island, Neil Island to Shahid Dweep and Havelock Island to Swaraj Dweep. A Rs 75 commemorative coin was also released to mark the 75th anniversary.
Following the declassification of documents related to Netaji Bose, Chandra Kumar Bose, the kin of Netaji has expressed his happiness and hailed the NDA government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for fulfilling his promise by releasing all the files pertaining to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
Chandra Kumar Bose also slammed the Indian National Congress for suppressing the files and also trying to distort history.