March 29, 2016
NEW DELHI: The second set of 50 declassified files relating to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose was released online by Dr Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State for Culture and Tourism, on Tuesday. They consist of 10 files from the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), 10 files from the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and 30 files from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA). They contain records of Bose's speeches after the plane crash in which he is said to have died, giving rise to more speculations.
These files pertaining to the period, 1956 to 2009, were published on the website
www.netajipapers.gov.in to meet the public
demand to access these files and also facilitate scholars to carry out research on
the freedom-fighter.
The first lot of 100 files relating to Netaji, after their preliminary conservation treatment and digitization, was put in the public domain by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 23, 2016 on the occasion of the 119th birth anniversary of Netaji. The files had passed the scrutiny of the specially constituted committee having experts from the field of Archives.
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, and in 2012, 1030 files/ items pertaining the Khosla Commission (271 files/ items) and Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry (759 files/ items) from the Ministry of Home Affairs. All these files/ items are already open to the public under the Public Records Rules, 1997, a press release by the Ministry of Culture said.
