Prime Minister Narendra Modi says he will seek to unravel one of India’s most enduring mysteries surrounding the independence struggle, the latest salvo in a growing history war that could undermine the opposition Congress party.
The fate of Subhas Chandra Bose, leader of the Indian National Army which collaborated with the Japanese and Germans against the British in World War Two, has remained a riddle for seven decades.
Successive Indian governments have kept hundreds of files related to his death secret, saying the release of the information could prejudice relations with foreign nations, fuelling conspiracy theories about how he died.
The findings could also embarrass India’s most famous political dynasty, because of the role played by first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in the aftermath of Bose’s death.
Since trouncing the Nehru-Gandhi family’s Congress party in a general election last year, Modi has chipped away at its grip on India’s post-colonial history.
Modi’s government has announced plans to change a museum set up to honour Nehru so it will reflect a wider range of leaders. His government has also erased the names of Nehru and his descendants from government schemes, places and postage stamps.
At a meeting on Wednesday, Modi met Bose’s relatives to tell them the files would be declassified from January 23 onwards to coincide with his 119th birthday.
“By ending the speculation it will allow us to assess his full contribution to the independence movement,” said Sidharth Nath Singh, a leader from Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), who met the Bose family.
The Indian government has officially said Bose died of burns when his aircraft crashed in Taiwan while he was on his way to Tokyo, three days after the end of World War II.
A six-year inquiry headed by a Supreme Court judge found in 2006 that neither Taiwan nor the US had any record of his plane crashing. It also found his supposed ashes in a shrine in Tokyo were those of a soldier.
Political ramifications
Singh said the release of the files could embarrass Congress if they showed Nehru’s government thought he was alive but did not want him to return to public life.
“The release of the files does have political ramifications, you can’t ignore it,” said Singh.
Nehru’s government spied on Bose’s family for two decades, suggesting it thought he may be alive, files declassified by West Bengal’s government last month show.
Congress veteran Mani Shankar Aiyar said the files will exonerate Nehru, and the reason they were kept secret is that they probably embarrass a foreign ally, but enough time has passed for it not to matter.
“The idea that they will embarrass Nehru is pure BJP fantasy,” said Aiyar.
About 200-300 files held by the prime minister’s office, intelligence bureau and foreign ministry will be declassified, Singh said.
Bose campaigned against British colonial rule with Mahatma Gandhi for 20 years, but fell out with him because he believed non-violence would fail. Chandra Kumar Bose, a relative of the leader, welcomed Modi’s decision to release the files.