PM Modi declassifies 100 secret Netaji files on his 109th birthday
PM Modi had, in his meeting with members of the Bose family in October last year, announced that the government would declassify the files relating to the leader whose disappearance 70 years ago still remains a mystery.
In a tweet in the morning the Prime Minister had said: "Today is a special day for all Indians. Declassification of Netaji files starts today. Will go to National Archives myself for the same".
Subsequently, the Ministries of Home Affairs, and External Affairs too initiated the process of declassification of files relating to Netaji in their respective collection, which were then handed over to the National Archives of India. Few more files were also transferred from the PMO.
The National Archives of India has been conducting conservation treatment of these files and digitizing them to make the files available on public domain.
The release of the 100 digital copies in public domain will meet a long-standing public demand for access to these files; it will also facilitate scholars to carry out further research on Netaji.
The National Archives of India plans to release digital copies of 25 declassified files on Netaji in public domain every month.
In 1997, the National Archives of India had received 990 declassified files pertaining to the Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauj) from the Ministry of Defence.
In 2012, it received 1,030 files/ items pertaining the Khosla Commission (271 files/ items) and Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry (759 files/ items) from the Ministry of Home Affairs.
All these files/ items are already open to the public under the Public Records Rules, 1997.
Earlier, in Sep 2015, the West Bengal government declassified 64 files related to Netaji and put them in public domain. The files are now kept in the Kolkata Police Museum.
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