Sleeping Bomb Lies in Netaji

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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.