Guest guest Posted March 26, 2001 Report Share Posted March 26, 2001 SLEEPING BOMB LIES IN NETAJI VAULT FROM CHANDAN NANDY New Delhi, March 25: If declassified, a set of pre-Independence documents on Subhash Chandra Bose, locked away in the vaults of the Intelligence Bureau and the home ministry, could unleash "public disorder", especially in West Bengal. These documents, essentially inputs provided by British intelligence to the then Cabinet, does not concern Netaji's mysterious disappearance. Nor do the documents provide any clue to his so-called incarceration in a Soviet "gulag" when Josef Stalin was in power. The Cabinet papers, marked "Top Secret", contain several references to Netaji, which, according to top sources in the Vajpayee government, "would lower his esteem in the eyes of the public". Because of the very nature of the contents — seven to eight Cabinet notes prepared on the basis of information provided by British intelligence — the file will never be declassified by the government, which claims complete privilege over it. This means that the Centre will try and keep the matter under wraps even if the Justice Manoj Kumar Mukherjee Commission, instituted by the Vajpayee government in November 1999 to probe Netaji's death and the circumstances leading to it, applies pressure for their submission before the one-man panel. "As of now there are no plans to hand over the documents to the Mukherjee Commission. There is no question of declassifying the papers," the sources said. They added that "under no circumstances" will the government make public the pre-Independence documents, though their declassification would also put to rest, "once and for all", speculation that the much- talked about papers have anything to do with Netaji's death, disappearance or imprisonment in a Soviet prison. Refusing to disclose the nature of the information contained in the British Cabinet papers, the sources said the remarks against the commander of the Indian National Army and Forward Bloc leader are "personal", but "have the potential to unleash large-scale public disorder, especially in West Bengal". Besides, in recent years, the BJP has been attempting to project Netaji as an icon of its own. To some extent, the party has already used Netaji as a counterfoil to the larger-than-life images of Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, projected by the Congress. Netaji's "patriotic zeal" and his "militant perspective" have added to the qualities that the BJP rank and file have found attractive. If released, the "too sensitive" documents are also likely to have repercussions in countries such as Japan, Singapore, Thailand and Malaysia where there are still some die-hard Netaji followers. Sources said the "sting could be taken out in one go only if they (the British Cabinet papers) are declassified". They argued that "after all", the remarks about Netaji have been made by British intelligence and officials of the day. "It (the act of making the documents public) will have to be a political decision," the sources said. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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