Public personalities raise their voice to increase clamour for declassification of files
Kolkata : Angry and shocked over the alleged snooping on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s family by successive Congress governments, concerned citizens here termed it a “national shame” and demanded to know the truth that is purportedly buried in secret government files.
United in rage, a large section of eminent personalities and commoners alike have called for the declassification of all secret government files on the nationalist leader.
With the fresh revelations pertaining to the 20-year period between 1948 and 1968 making the headlines last week, the clamour for publicising over 150 secret documents gained ground, prompting the central government to set up an inter-ministerial committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary to review the Official Secrets Act in the context of such files.
Expressing his disbelief that the Jawaharlal Nehru government could order such snooping, former Lok Sabha speaker Somnath Chatterjee called for making the secret documents public for the truth to come out. “Snooping has always been unacceptable although it is quite unbelievable that Nehru would have ordered such a thing. But then all these things would become clear if the classified documents of Bose are made public,” Chatterjee said.
Ex-Supreme Court judge A.K. Ganguly minced no words in slamming the Congress for the snooping controversy. “It’s a national shame. All the secret Netaji documents must be declassified because the people of India have the right to know what happened to their hero,” added Ganguly.
Eminent writer Shirshendu Mukherjee also batted for declassification.
“There are a number of conspiracy theories surrounding Bose and his eventual disappearance. So to put to rest all the speculations surrounding him, it is imperative all documents are made public,” he said.
Expressing disgust over the issue, a section of Bose’s family which has been running a declassification campaign has demanded a judicial probe into the snooping saga.
