Wednesday, 22 April 2015

Mystery shrouding Netaji’s death should be unravelled


Ordinary people and masses look forward for an able leadership for guidance, assurance and enthusiastically wait for their visionary approach to lead the nation. Leaders in any part of the World are held in high reverence and especially those who made phenomenal contribution for the liberation of the nation from the foreign hands are adored. The recent episode of the leakage of crucial information regarding the whereabouts of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose revealed how the custodians of history and heads of state failed us appallingly. Setting aside the contributions or sacrifices made by leaders who hogged in limelight, it has exposed the most cynical side of a venerable leadership. While it might be too precocious to make frivolous observations about the overpowering charisma of our hallowed freedom fighters, the quirkiness of the common man forces him to question the nobility of the towering personalities.

As more and more details emerge about the declassification of the files expounding the nexus between Indian leadership and other World leaders’ curiosity of Indian youth about the nitty-gritty details of the independence movement and its aftermath is augured. It is matter of utter shame and disrespect to know that a family who lost their dearest one for the noble cause of liberating nation was snooped for 20 years. Their personal communication, movements were under surveillance by the Intelligence Officials at the behest of the Indian government. It is a duty of every citizen and the state to accord high statures to the extraordinary men and patriotic sons of India.

Indian History tried to portray Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose as a controversial freedom fighter for his ideological concussion with the Orthodoxy of Mahatma Gandhi. In his pursuit of obtaining independence for the country he sought help from countries like Russia, Germany and Japan. But he was neither a communist nor a fascist but a nationalist. His extraordinary motivation in forming the Indian National Army (INA) with the limited monetary funding caused tremors in the colonial rule and warranted them to leave India in 1947. Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar in his interview to the BBC in 1955 revealed that the British left India for two reasons-The INA raised by Bose aroused patriotic fervour among the Indian Soldiers who shifted their loyalty and spurred them to form a battalion to fight out the British. It also attracted public interest and with sympathy from the Indian military British feared that it could turn out be another 1857 sepoy mutiny. British Prime Minister Clement Attlee confided these details in Dr. Ambedkar in a private talk and later disclosed it in his autobiography too.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZJs-BJoSzbo

Setting aside the political affiliations and the implications that the current government can accrue, isn’t it a matter of pride and honour for the country to know about the whereabouts of a leader who gave up his life for the freedom of country? Meanwhile the political mudslinging has already begun with Congress lambasting the NDA government of wilfully damaging the aura of the nation’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. After almost seven decades of independence and with latest scientific techniques at our beck and call it is responsibility of the state to investigate the details of the leaders associated with freedom movement. It is moral binding on the government to take a call and restore Bose’s legacy.

All other democratic nations, India loves to emulate have a well laid out system of declassification of files. It is high time that government should evolve a system to expunge the lurking doubts about the life of the freedom leader by having tacit declassification system of files in place. Noble freedom fighters who threw away British in spite of their ideological differences always addressed each other with great praise and never harboured any ill will. The contemporary political parties too instead of getting overenthusiastic in stirring unfounded controversies must work in tandem to develop a credible system for declassifying over 150 files locked up in national depositories. They must also refrain drawing political mileage from the revelations of the files and leave it to the discretion of public to draw conclusions. Already some of the crucial files shrouding the mystery of Netaji were destroyed. Unveiling the mask of secrecy over remaining documents in government’s possession can be the ultimate tribute the nation can pay to its esteemed son. @ Copyrights reserved.

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