These days, whether in the matter of postage stamps or long-suppressed Government files, history in this country is increasingly coming to be viewed through the lens of the family. let me, therefore, join the growing list of stakeholders with an unexpected admission.
Until Saturday morning, I was unaware that the Netaji files — the subject matter of a spirited controversy, and not merely in West Bengal — would singe me personally. Upon reading a potted version of a few files in Saturday’s edition of The Telegraph, I discovered that my great-aunt (grandfather’s sister), the feisty trade unionist Prabhabati Dasgupta apparently withdrew her candidature from some now-forgotten Calcutta Corporation election — the entire politics of the Bengal Congress centred on control of the Calcutta Corporation — because of the unethical conduct of some of Subhas Chandra Bose’s supporters. This, at least, was the conclusion of the State Intelligence Bureau that had intercepted a letter written by Jagat Prasanna Gupta, another relative, to one Debendra Nath Ghosh on May 14, 1950 wherein Netaji was described as a “self-seeking gentleman”.
That Subhas Chandra Bose was regarded as a faction leader in Bengal politics before his dramatic escape to Germany in 1940 is a matter of public record. This does not undermine his contribution to the freedom struggle: it merely locates him in the ecosystem of a nationalist movement where the undeniable supremacy of Mahatma Gandhi
co-existed with a great deal of divisiveness at the subordinate levels. Therefore, the intelligence community in Calcutta hardly gleamed anything new in their discovery that the political legacy of Subhas Chandra Bose in Bengal was bitterly contested, at least before the legend of Netaji rewrote the history of Subhas Chandra Bose the politician.
The question arises: why was such a file, understandably marked “Confidential” because it related to mail interception, was kept out of bounds for 65 yearsIJ There is no common sense answer I can proffer. At best, it suggests that the then Police Commissioner in 1950 violated rules or that the then Chief Minister, the formidable Dr BC Roy had developed an insatiable appetite in anything that had a reference to Netaji.
Dr Roy died in 1962 and in the normal course, unless there was a contemporary significance, this file should have despatched to the archives sometime in the 1980s — when the left Front was in power. In any case, the revelation that the local intelligence wing snooped on Sarat Chandra Bose, his sons and the humbler Jagat Prasanna Gupta would hardly have sullied his reputation that was based on uncompromising anti-Communism and impatience with Nehru’s fuddy-duddy socialism. Also, just in case in case it is forgotten, Dr Roy was part of the so-called Big Five grouping in the Congress that patronised the Bose brothers against their factional rivals. Throughout the 1930s, the Big Five propped up Subhas Chandra Bose in the same way the Syndicate controlled Indira Gandhi in the early days of her prime ministership.
The heap of files that Mamata Banerjee released to the media has quite understandably attracted immense curiosity because it was supposed to provide definite leads in answering the bigger question: did Netaji really die in the aeroplane crash in Taipei in August 1945. No one seriously believed that the files in the State Government’s possession would secure a definite answer. At best, the police records would establish a trail to the classified files in the possession of the Prime Minister’s Office in Delhi.
A thorough examination of the recently released files in Kolkata is still awaited. However, the initial media reports suggest that, besides reporting the speculation over Netaji’s fate and vague suggestions of western intelligence reports, nothing has been discovered that takes the story forward. The existence of a few newspaper clippings — already in the public domain — and reports by a CID officer do not establish anything. Although I may be mistaken, it is unlikely that any answer to the Netaji riddle will be forthcoming from the remaining ‘secret’ files in Delhi.
This is not to suggest that the Modi Government should fall back on ‘national interest’ to perpetuate secrecy. If anything, the possible contents of the files released by Mamata last Friday suggest that the principle of secrecy that thwarted the normal transfer of files to the archives was based on nothing in particular. It possibly happened owing to bureaucratic lethargy and the non-application of mind. It is the job of intelligence agencies to monitor all whispers and even track the movement of relatives who may know more than they are willing to let on. But so far, the case for a wilful cover-up hasn’t been established. What has been demonstrated is that the Jawaharlal Nehru Government was itself anxious to find out whether or not the Taipei air crash was indeed the final chapter in the life of Netaji.
Anuj Dhar has written an eminently readable book on Netaji’s disappearance that keeps alive the mystery. It is a painstakingly researched work that reveals the gap in the available documentation in both Japan and Taiwan. Then there are the papers of the Faizabad sadhu that were seized by the UP Police after his death. And finally, there are believed to be some old Soviet records that the Russian authorities haven’t released. Taken together they may take the Netaji story a little forward, although there is no guarantee of that.
But regardless of whether or not there is final closure of the Netaji story, the Modi Government should release the documents in its custody at the earliest. Maybe this will be of some embarrassment to Nehru and possibly the Communists but the past can’t be buried indefinitely. Nor should wild speculation be allowed to sully our understanding of the past. Openness is the best answer to conspiracy theories that appeal to those who imagine that Netaji (or for that matter, Nehru) belongs to one family.
