File photo of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose
A government panel is likely to decide soon on whether to declassify more files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, amid a row over revelations that the iconic freedom fighter's relatives were spied on for many years.
An inter-ministerial committee headed by the Cabinet Secretary will review the Official Secrets Act in connection with the Netaji files. The rules say that files can be declassified automatically after 30 years.
There are about 58 files linked to Netaji with the Prime Minister's Office and about 25 with the External Affairs Ministry.
Netaji's grand-nephew Surya Kumar Bose, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday, said he had asked for the declassification of all files associated with the leader.
The prime minister, he said, had told him that he would look into it seriously and then decide.
"PM said he will try his best to open the files up as he hasn't seen the files himself and can't judge the content. It was an honest answer, he at least promised to look into it and try his best to do something about it. I am hopeful," Mr Bose said.
Government files declassified recently have revealed that the Intelligence Bureau kept relatives of Netaji under close surveillance between 1948 and 1968. India's first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru was in power for 16 of those years. Only 10,000 of the 70,000 pages of the records were made public earlier this year, and are now with the National Archives.
In an RTI reply, the Prime Minister's Office had refused to declassify the files arguing that the "disclosure would prejudicially affect relations with foreign countries."
Most members of the Bose family believe that the freedom fighter did not die in a plane crash in Taipei in 1945 as presumed. They have repeatedly asked for declassification of files related to him.