It is January 23, 2015 today and the 118th birthday of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Although there is a new government, nay, a paradigm shift in Delhi, the files relating to the disappearance of Netaji remain classified in the Prime Minister’s office and the ministry of external affairs. Last month, the Modi government refused to declassify the files on the grounds that India’s relations with friendly neighboring countries would be ‘adversely affected’ if the contents of the files are made public. This is precisely the same grounds on which the previous Congress governments steadfastly refusing to open the files. At that time, the public perception was that the reluctance of the government was to shield Nehru who it was averred would be shown in a less than flattering light, if the contents of the files were to be shared with the public. But Narendra Modi has no kinship with Jawaharlal Nehru ideologically and is no blood relation of the latter so there is public consternation at the refusal.

A retired top intelligence official who served for three and a half decades in both the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) says that it is his belief that Modi will not be ‘allowed’ to open up the files. But who can stop an ‘absolute’ PM that is Modi? He says the system – the one designed by the British rulers – is to hide information and this has continued even in Independent India. “Even if Modi wants to open the files, his officials will quote various rules and regulations and take recourse to various considerations to tell him why the information cannot be made public,” the retired official says. Incidentally files related to Netaji are in the custody of the West Bengal government – which presumably is more sympathetic to the cause of the patriot who disappeared – are yet to be declassified.

I asked the official whether he had seen the files relating to Netaji during his long tenure in IB. The retired official shook his head and said no. But his ready ‘no’ made this writer suspicious that he would have and I asked him what, in his opinion, could have happened to Netaji. Without blinking an eye lid he said: “I don’t think there was any air-crash. Netaji went to Russia, because he did not want to be caught by the British and Americans who would have tried him as a war criminal. He wanted to try his luck with Stalin. The boss of USSR kept him for sometime trying to figure out what to do with him. In the meanwhile the British realized that Netaji had made his escape to Russia and put pressure on Stalin. This is the time when the Cold War had not begun or it had just begun but it was not too cold. So Anglo Russian relations were none too bad. The British realized that if Netaji was openly arrested and tried, all hell would break loose in India. So Stalin was persuaded and he packed Netaji off to Siberia and that’s where he died in the cold,” the retired official said.

The retired official however cautioned that the entire story of Netaji won’t be found in Indian files. “In fact there will be very little here. All you may have are cross references to him and queries from the foreign governments about him,” he said. Information relating to Netaji’s ultimate fate will be deep inside archives in USSR or in the files of British intelligence.

I think that it is humbug that the public revelation of contents of Netaji files will spoil relations with friendly countries. I do not think that if it is revealed Netaji died due to the actions of Stalin will make me hate Boris Yeltsin and the Russians in general. After all the British tortured and hung so many Indian revolutionaries right from Khudiram Bose to Ram Prasad Bismil to Bhagat Singh. This does not mean that the Indians hate the British.

Modi represents a new paradigm in Indian politics and he would do well to determinedly put down the objections of babudom and throw open the Netaji files. This may actually pay political dividends for him in the elections to be held in West Bengal next year. The Communists who draw inspiration from Russia and China will be red faced after the revelations and the Congress will have nowhere to hide. As far as the ruling Trinamul Congress is concerned it too has been passive. Under siege due to the Sarada scam, the Trinumul Congress could have scored brownie points if it went hyper in unearthing the Netaji disappearance mystery by pro actively setting up an inquiry commission. The last inquiry commission – under the chairmanship of a retired Supreme Court judge MK Mukherjee had found that the plane crash in Taiwan in 1945 in which Netaji purported to have died never took place. But without the cooperation of the government, the commission could go no further.

Now it is time to go forward on the matter and if the powers that be show no interest it is for civil society activists to establish a Concerned Citizens’ Tibunal to investigate the disappearance of Netaji. Ultimately truth has to prevail.