Declassify all Netaji files to expose IB, RAW roles: Researcher

Dominated by discordant narratives of ‘history,’ the Bangalore Lit Fest took another deep dive into the contentious past with the Subhash Chandra Bose story on Sunday.

Demanding total declassification of all ‘Netaji files” including the intelligence reports, journalist-writer Anuj Dhar sought to expose what he called was “India’s biggest cover-up.”

Thirty three files are lined up for release on January 23. But Dhar contended that there are a total of 41. “The declassification should be comprehensive. It should include the intelligence files linked to IB and RAW,” Dhar told an audience that seemed deeply stirred and  provoked in equal measure.

The process, if total, would bring out the hidden issues one by one. Dhar said the role played by the intelligence bureaucracy would be out in the open. “There will also be huge repercussions if it is proved that Bose was in Russia.”

The seasoned Netaji researcher was clear that the Prime Minister’s Office had some top secret files that had to be included in the  process too. “Go the whole hog. This snooping scandal should be exposed, you cannot spy on your own people.”

The espionage charge was directed at Jawaharlal Nehru, a finding Dhar attributed to the release of 10,000 pages in 2010, and the confirmation through 64 files released by the West Bengal government.

“Between 1948 and 1971, the documents showed that the Centre snooped on all relatives of Bose across states,” he said.

Indicating that Nehru was well aware of this, Dhar said this undemocratic act paled in comparison with what Richard Nixon attempted  to do in the infamous Watergate scandal. At least Nixon got caught in the first instance, but the Nehru government continued with it.
To illustrate the enormity of that act, Dhar said even a 9th class boy, who in 1947 had sought to know Bose’s whereabouts, was not spared.

“He was being snooped as well. All the while, we are given this gibberish that we are democratic and that acts like spying and secret bunkers happen only in the US.”

In his writings, Dhar had maintained that Bose did not die in a Taipei air crash, but could have possibly gone to Russia. On Sunday, he  reiterated it by demanding to know whether the government had ever asked the Russians about it.

“You cannot sit in Delhi and say there is nothing in the Russian archives.” Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said the matter will be taken up with Vladimir Putin (Russian president) in December.  “Let them first declassify all intelligence files and then talk to Russians with it,” said Dhar.
DH News Service