Dinesh Kamath's Editorial 'Nation has the right to know the truth about Netaji' that was published in Newsband

Nation has the right to know the truth about Netaji

Prime Minister Narendra Modis decision to declassify documents in the “governments possession relating to Subhas Chandra Bose” is excellent. This might help lift the veil of secrecy surrounding his life and death. Part of the credit for the momentum on this front should go to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee,

In this age of assured transparency, Mr. Modi’s step, and especially his observation that “nations that forget history are bound to lose the power to create it”, must go beyond mere words. Did Bharatiya Janata Party make this movie simply because West Bengal will be going to the polls in 2016? It is clear that Modi is looking forward to conquer more States.

There is no doubt that Bose was one of the greatest fighters of independence era and the whole nation is entitled to know the full details not only of his strategy of his fight but also whether he had actually perished in the so called plane accident or not. If he had not been killed in the accident then how did he spend the rest of his life and what compelled him to live in hiding?

In its frenzy of undoing what Congrss has done, the government is doing some rare good things. One of them is to unveil the historical truth about the great leader Bose. The step is welcome and any truth, however unsavory it may be, helps understand history in right perspective. Hopefully, the truth would be out sooner.

Historians will finally get the opportunity to do research and lift the veil of secrecy surrounding his life and death. Bose was a revolutionary lawyer and leader of the Congress Party and stood in direct confrontation with Gandhi’s passive and nonviolent resistance methods against the British. His plan was to get Hitlers help to stage a revolution in India that would distract British forces from the war against Germany under the motto “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.” He had calculated that Britain would lose the war against the military superior Germany and as a consequence, lose India as well. But most important was Germany lost the war. A lot of research on Bose will be done in the coming years. Perhaps the veil of secrecy surrounding his life and death can be lifted.

One has to admit that at last, the Modi Government has plucked courage to resurrect Netaji. Netaji will be happy that what he could not achieve in his life time has now been achieved; viz., a grand alliance with the Hindutva brigade.

Will it be right to suspect that the Modi government's decision to declassify Netaji files is promoted by a political agenda? That way one could always say that Nehru and the Congress kept the facts of these files under wraps to make sure there was no other hero on the scene. Unfortunately Marxist historians who dominated the scene till date collaborated with the Congress in denying Bose his share in India's history of freedom struggle. One can only hope despite many speculations the files will reveal the truth and the whole truth.