Efforts Made To Obtain Files Relating To Netaji From UK, US, Russia, Japan, China: Govt
V Muraleedharan was replying to a question on the government's efforts to seek cooperation relating to the controversy over Netaji's death.
New Delhi: The Narendra Modi-led government on Thursday said that efforts have been made to get the documents and records related to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose from the UK, the US, Russia, Japan, and China.
The Minister of State for External Affairs, V Muraleedharan, said in Rajya Sabha that the UK has informed that 62 records on Bose are accessible on the sites of the National Archives and the British Library.
"Efforts have been made to obtain the files and records relating to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose from the UK, the USA, Russia, Japan and China," he said.
V Muraleedharan was replying to a question on the government's efforts to seek cooperation relating to the controversy over Netaji's death.
"The Russian government has conveyed that they were unable to find any documents in the Russian archives pertaining to Netaji even after additional investigations made based on request from the Indian side," he said.
Muraleedharan said the reaction of the Chinese government was still awaited.
"The government of Japan had declassified two files on Netaji. These files are part of their Archives and are available in the public domain," he said.
"Subsequently, based on the government's request, the government of Japan transferred these files to India and are retained in the National Archives of India," he further said.
Muraleedharan said the Japanese government has conveyed that additional records related to the matter would be declassified according to their policies after a recommended time frame and based on an internal review mechanism.
"The US government has informed that they do not hold any historical records of over 30 years. The US National Archives and Records Administration informed that their archival records of that period were not digitised," he said.
"Therefore, locating these documents would require extensive research of the records of different US government agencies and they will not be able to do so," Muraleedharan said.
While two commissions of inquiry had concluded that Netaji had died in a plane accident in Taipei on August 18, 1945, a third probe panel, headed by Justice M K Mukherjee, had challenged it and proposed that Bose was alive after that.
Muraleedharan said the government constituted Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry in 1999 to inquire into all the facts and circumstances related to the disappearance of Netaji in 1945 and subsequent developments connected therewith.
He said one of the terms of reference of the Commission was "whether ashes in the Japanese temple are ashes of Netaji".
"The report of the JMCI and its connected documents have been declassified and sent to the National Archives of India (NAI) for permanent retention which are available at HYPERLINK "http://www.netajipapers.gov.in" he added.
In 1943, Netaji led the Indian National Army or the Azad Hind Fauj to liberate India from British rule. The title 'Netaji' was given to Subhas Chandra Bose by German and Indian authorities at the Special Bureau of India in Berlin.
(With PTI inputs)
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