Full panel of CIC to decide on documents on Netaji

[ganpat1956]

Kolkata, April 2 (PTI): The full bench of the Central Information Commission will decide whether documents consulted by enquiry panels probing the mysterious disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose should be disclosed, Information Commissioner A N Tiwari has said.

Tiwari conveyed this recently to Mission Netaji, a Delhi-based organisation campaigning to access information on the disappearance of the icon of the freedom movement, while hearing its appeal in this regard.

Giving a "final chance" to the Union home ministry to come clear on the issue, Tiwari asked it to provide an adequate explanation from the ministerial level on why documents sought by Mission Netaji could not be made public.

All documents on the basis of which the two inquiry panels led by Shah Nawaz Khan (1956) and G D Khosla (1970-74) made their decisions have been kept secret by the government.

Tiwari's directive came close on the heels of Information Commissioner O P Kejriwal directing the external affairs ministry to provide Mission Netaji's Anuj Dhar copies of its correspondence with the Sovet Union and later Russia on Netaji's disappearance.

"If adequate explanations are not provided, the Commission will be compelled to direct the disclosure of all documents in question," Kejriwal said.

Last year, Home Minister Shivraj Patil announced in Parliament that investigations conducted by Khan and Khosla were more credible than that of Justice M K Mukherjee who headed another panel that probed Netaji's disappearance.

Following Patil's announcement, Mission Netaji's Sayantan Dasgupta filed a petition with the home ministry to seek copies of all documents examined by the Khan and Khosla panels.

"Our case has been that these enquiries made selective use of evidence to arrive at the conclusion to suit the government's view that Netaji died in Taipei," Dasgupta claimed.

In response, the home ministry refused to provide documents, taking recourse to secion 8 1(a) of the RTI Act, which exempts the release of information information which can "prejudicially affect sovereignty and integrity of India", "relations with a foreign state" or "lead to incitement of offence".

Dasgupta then filed a complaint with the CIC. In its first hearing in October last year, home ministry officials said they were not aware of the documents examined by the earlier panels as they, unlike the Mukherjee Commission, had not appended any list of exhibits.

Tiwari then directed Dasgupta to revise the original application to demand specific documents. Accordingly, Mission Netaji filed a revised petition with a list of 202 documents used as exhibits by the Khosla Commission in its arguments section.

At the latest hearing last week, home ministry officials were to appear with the papers but instead came with a secret note from Home Secretary V K Duggal, who has since retired.

Irked at the letter that reiterated the same arguments using Section 8 1(a), Tiwari said: "The issue is far too important to be decided in an ad hoc manner at the level of the home secretary. I am not prepared to allow an omnibus recourse to Section 8 1(a)."

The CIC assured the appellant that Indians had every right to have full information on their hero.

The Hindu News Update Service

[Anuj Dhar]

Kindly post this separtely. It is a different matter and it will get lost in this thread. Already, media has overlooked it.

[Anuj Dhar]

Kindly follow these links to get the full story.

:::MISSION NETAJI::: CIC rejects Govt stance on Russia correspondence papers

:::MISSION NETAJI::: Full CIC bench to hear MHA-Netaji secret papers case

[ganpat1956]

Disclose Netaji panel papers, CIC tells MHA

The Central Information Commission on Thursday directed the Ministry of Home Affairs to disclose relevant papers relating to commission of inquiry set up to probe death of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose within three months.

This direction is in response to an appeal filed by Shri Sayantan Dasgupta of New Delhi. The full details of the decision is already uploaded under the "decisions" section of our portal.

[Anuj Dhar]

It is a landmark decision for the RTI movement in India.

Please check out Justice for Subhas blog for some details.

http://justiceforsubhas.blogspot.com

This was a full bench order. The hearing took place on June 5. Sayantan, Chandrachur and I put up our cases and MHA side was represented by 3 officers, including a Joint Secy handling the Interanal Security division of the MHA.

The MHA has something like 70,000 pages on the case. I hope it will make the skeptics to take note. And there are many more classified files with PMO, MEA and other ministries. All for a "dead man" and a "dead issue"?

[ganpat1956]

Thank you Anuj. After seeing the CIC decision, I was waiting for you to post the matter in our forum, till late in the evening. Since nothing came from your side, I went in for a two sentence posting in the hope that you will amplify it with additional info. I am happy, you have not belied my expectations. The blogspot is interesting and informative, especially about the man who put the MHA in a spot.

[Anuj Dhar]

Here is some additional info. It's from the CIC directive itself. The following are MHA's resons to not to give us the relevant papers:

That the documents sought under the RTI Act are voluminous and top secret in nature and may lead to chaos in the country if disclosed.

That the information asked for is more than 20 years old and as such, its disclosure is exempted under section 8(3) of the RTI Act. They also submitted that the committee appointed to go into the disappearance part of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose has come to the conclusion that Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose died in an air crash. It was tabled before the Parliament and is in public domain. So, there is nothing that the Government hides in this respect. They also submitted that the findings of the Committee are also in public domain.

That apart from the 202 exhibits which the complainant had requested, there are 308 more exhibits running into 70,000 pages and, therefore, to give copies of all of those are a Herculean task.

That the decision concerning disclosure has to be taken at the highest level and that they cannot say any thing on their own.

I wonder what the highest level is? Sonia Gandhi?!

[karira]

Anuj,

I have read the full case on your blog , the CIC site and various press reports.
The MHA is repeating the same thing, again and again, from the beggining. They do not seem to have any new arguments. These are just typical "delaying" and "stalling" tactics.

[karira]

Anuj,

Were you present personally for this hearing ?

I am sure your enjoyment in hearing IC Mr Kejariwal's decision in person, was more than my enjoyment while reading it on the CIC website.

It's real funny !

http://cic.gov.in/CIC-Orders/Decision_26072007_09.pdf

[ganpat1956]

Karira,
This decision comes under a different thread : RTI & riddle of the ashes Nehru received. Posting this here will dilute the importance of the land mark full bench decision in the matter of Sayantan Dasgupta's appeal. Before Anuj feels bad, we will request Kushal to shift it to the correct thread.

[Anuj Dhar]

Originally Posted by ganpat1956

Karira,
This decision comes under a different thread : RTI & riddle of the ashes Nehru received. Posting this here will dilute the importance of the land mark full bench decision in the matter of Sayantan Dasgupta's appeal. Before Anuj feels bad, we will request Kushal to shift it to the correct thread.

Right you are. I have responded to Karira's post there only.

Regards

[karira]

As reported in zeenews.com by Bureau Report, on 23 January 2008:
Zee News - Netaji was killed in aircrash: Documents

Netaji was killed in aircrash: Documents

New Delhi, Jan 22: As the circumstances surrounding the death of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose remains shrouded in mystery, official documents declassified by the government say the revolutionary leader was a victim of an aircrash on August 18, 1945.

Bose, whose birth centenary is tomorrow, was sitting next to the petrol tank of a K-21 heavy bomber aircraft when it lost control and crashed, according to documents made public by the Union Home Ministry following a Right to Information (RTI) application.

Contents of 91 documents have been put in public domain while the Home Ministry has declined to do so in respect of over 100 documents.

The report of Counter Intelligence Corps, who questioned Bose`s close aide Habib ur Rahman, said that the plane carrying Netaji after its take off from Taihoku (Taipei) in Formosa (Taiwan), could not gain much altitude, when he had heard a terrific explosion leaving the plane "vibrating violently."

Rahman told the investigators that the plane in which he was accompanying Bose, lost its control and went into flames after it took-off from Taihoku in the afternoon of August 18, 1945.

"...The seat Bose occupied in the aircraft was beside a petrol tank at the time of the crash the tank exploded, spreading the burning fuel on Bose`s clothing," the Counter Intelligence Corps said in a report dated September 29, 1945.

The declassified report was revealed to a Delhi based organisation `Mission Netaji` which had invoked its Right to Information to get from the Home Ministry documents relating to Netaji`s mysterious death.

Netaji met British Governor of Assam here and put forth the claim to form a Congress government. "Sensing the Governor`s unwillingness, he showed his true capability and threatened him that if his demands were not met, Congress governments all over India would resign," Bawri recalled.

Finally, the Governor agreed to swear in a Congress government under the premiership of Gopinath Bordoloi on November 18, 1938.

Recalling his historic drive with Bose, Bawri, said, "I also took him on a sight-seeing trip in Shillong. He was particularly interested in visiting the house where Rabindranath Tagore stayed and I took him to Rilbong, where the poet laureate composed some of his greatest literary pieces."

Bawri also recalled that Netaji did not mention that he had been to Shillong before, especially during his fairly long stay at the salubrious pine city for regaining health in 1927 after he was released from Mandalay Jail in Burma.

In the report, it was stated that after the air crash, Bose was lying by the plane when Rahman went and removed Netaji`s clothes that were left burning as a result of the explosion.

Even though Bose had suffered burn injuries apart from injuries to his head and neck, he "recovered sufficiently" to carry on a conversation thereafter, Rahman, Deputy Chief of Staff in the Indian National Army(INA) told investigators.

Apart from Rahman`s interview report, classified documents on related diplomatic correspondence, telegrams sent from External Affairs Ministry to PMO and selected letters of former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru were also revealed.

The disclosure comes in wake of the Central Information Commission`s (CIC) order directing disclosure of exhibited documents relied on by Shah Nawaz Khan Committee (1956) and Justice G D Khosla Commission (1970-74).

In his RTI plea, Sayantan Dasgupta of Mission Netaji, cited 202 exhibits considered by the two inquiry panels and sought a disclosure of the same. He sought the documents to find out as to what were the documentary evidences that were considered by the two panels in declaring Bose a victim of an aircrash in 1945.

Notably, these two inquiry reports were divergent to the findings of the recent Justice Mukherjee Commission, that had contradicted their findings.

In its order of July five last year, CIC termed as "facile hypothesis" the Centre`s decision to deny the documents on gro und that it could lead to a "possible unrest" in Netaji`s home state of West Bengal.

It, however, gave Home Ministry the liberty to examine and analyse specific documents.

[Anuj Dhar]

I am sorry for not been able to post this earlier. Here's the story from our side.

Disclosure of 90 Bose mystery records

The Times London has also carried this following.

Secret files shed light on death of Subhas Chandra Bose, rebel who wanted Nazi support to free India - Times Online

[karira]

As reported in The Sunday Tribune on 3 February 2008:
The Sunday Tribune - Spectrum

Netaji: The mystery deepens

What happened to Subhas Chandra Bose in 1945? Maj Gen Himmat Singh Gill (retd) says many questions remain unanswered if we buy the story that he died in the plane crash at Taipei

An organisation called Mission Netaji, invoking the RTI Act, has succeeded in forcing the government to make public the secret and controversial documents relating to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s reported death in a plane crash at Taipei on August 18, 1945. This would be welcomed by every nationalist Indian, for many of whom Netaji was as towering an icon as Mahatma Gandhi. Questions which have remained unanswered to date and troubled this writer are: whether there was such a plane crash and was Netaji on board? Did he die in the crash as announced by the Japanese.

What is known is that Netaji had first journeyed to Moscow en route Germany, and from there after a prolonged stay he had been transported to Tokyo by sea in German and Japanese submarines in May 1943, to take over the reins of the INA, which was then waging a war against the Allied Forces operating in the Far-Eastern Theatre. The Great Escape to Germany from Calcutta via the Khyber Pass, Kabul and Moscow in 1941, and later in 1945 when as believed by many Netaji took the final flight out of Saigon to Manchuria from where he is understood to have crossed over into the Soviet Union and obscurity, will continue to be studied by political analysts and historians alike who have never bought the official finding that Netaji perished in the Taipei air crash. Though the Shah Nawaz Khan Committee set up during Jawaharlal Nehru’s time and, later on, the Justice G.D.Khosla Commission in 1970 had both ruled that Netaji had died in the Taipei crash, the Justice M.K.Mukherjee Commission in its 2005 report has totally debunked this conclusion of Netaji’s purported death. Inquiries made in Saigon and later in Kabul in our embassies and with many of the old-timers in both the places, have revealed that no one had ever heard anything about the plane crash at Taipei. Though the 1941 Kabul-Moscow journey was a well-recognised fact, there were no signs of any kind that indicated a return journey by Netaji in 1945 through present-day Kyrgtistan, Tajikstan ( both then part of USSR and the shortest route home) or Moscow for that matter into Afghanistan presumably en route India, after his reported crossing over into Russian territory from Dairen. Where did Netaji suddenly vanish after his entry into Russia in 1945? This is a question that needs to be answered.

To understand what possibly happened to Bose on his last flight to Dairen in Manchuria, it is necessary to retrace his successful outward journey through Afghanistan in 1941. As Pradip Bose records in his book Subhas Bose and India Today, Netaji braved a trek over the Khyber Pass and across the Kabul river gorge and the icy Sairobi plains in an overcrowded bus and made his way to Kabul on January 27, 1941. It could have only been a person with a tough mind like that of Netaji who could have made such a hazardous and dangerous journey in such inclement weather and on a highway where even during daytime there are good chances of being waylaid and looted.

Sadly, when Netaji arrived in Kabul he found that the Russian Ambassador there was not very keen on giving him a visa to travel to Moscow, since they anticipated that if Germany attacked Russia as was expected then the Russians would become the allies of the British and it would not do to be seen to be assisting an enemy of the Empire.

When Japan attacked Pearl Harbour, Bose decided to travel to Japan in 1943 to influence the operations on the Burma-India border with the assistance of his new hosts.

By mid-August 1945, when Japan was on the run, Netaji found himself at Singapore heading a bedraggled INA most of which had already been taken into detention by the Allied Forces and who were now being held in concentration camps awaiting deportation and trial after the war ended. Netaji’s initial plan to stick on with the INA in Malaya and Singapore underwent a change at this stage and he made plans to move closer to the neighbourhood in Burma to carry on the freedom struggle for India. By then the Burmese army had switched its loyalties to the winning Allied Command. It was not possible to set up INA resistance bases in the region, and neither was a route through Burma found practical for Netaji’s return to India because of lack of any local assistance so crucial in such operations.

With the maritime routes blocked by the Allies and the confidence gained in having made a similar land journey before through South and Central Asia, the only feasible routing for Netaji from Singapore was therefore through Saigon, Taiwan, Manchuria and thence into Russia, for a return via Kabul to India. After the nuclear bombing of Japan, it has been well documented that the Russians had launched deliberate attacks from Russian Manchuria into Japanese controlled territory southwards towards Harbin, Fushun and Dalian, and therefore Netaji making for Darien and thence into Russian territory made perfect sense.

The intriguing part, however, is that Netaji is supposed to have died when his plane was taking off from Taipei, and therefore it is clear that there had to be a destination for which he was heading. Surely he could not have been heading for Japan which was by then tottering to a meek fall,and neither could his bomber aircraft with the flying range that such aircraft had in those days be heading right across the vast Pacific Ocean to Hawai and American territory!

Anuj Dhar of Mission Netaji had been intimated by the Taiwanese government in 2003 that no plane carrying Netaji had ever crashed in their territory. Neither is it possible that having flown all the way from Saigon, Taipei was Netaji’s final destination and not just a stopover for refuelling of the aircraft. What was Netaji going to do in the middle of nowhere in Taiwan, when all around him the Axis Powers were collapsing one after the other? It is logical to believe that Netaji took off from Taipei safely and flew on to Dairen, irrespective of Col Habib-ur-Rehman’s (his fellow passenger on the flight) report in the matter much after the purported crash. It is also intriguing that whereas Netaji died of severe burns in the purported crash, Habib-ur-Rahman only had some burnt skin and scars to show for the good luck in his survival.

There is a linkage in this to what Shyam Lal Jain of Meerut, deposing before the Khosla Commission (an account documented by Pradip Bose in his book referred to earlier), had stated that he was asked by Nehru in Delhi to type out a handwritten note which he (Nehru) had handed over to him, and the contents of which Jain, reproducing from memory, had stated to the Commission as follows, "Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose proceeding by aeroplane from Saigon, arrived today August 23, 1945, at Dairen (Manchuria) at 1.30 afternoon". Shyam Lal, in his recorded statement, goes on to state that according to the said note, after a short break Netaji and four others left in a jeep for Russian territory. Access to classified documents of the period will throw light on Bose’s flight in 1945, and there is need to delve further into the matter in the interest of recording truthful history. An unconfirmed report had also appeared earlier that Netaji had died at a ripe age in a Siberian prison, and Pradip Bose also mentions in his book that in July 1946 there were reports that Khurshedben Naoroji, a Secretary of Mahatma Gandhi, wrote to American author Louis Fischer that if Netaji came back to India with the support of the Russians then neither Gandhi nor the Congress would be able to do anything about it. Who then or which power in India was interested in seeing the last of Netaji and did not want his return to his homeland? Was the story of the Taipei crash deliberate misinformation first put out by Japan and later on confirmed by Indian high-ups, so that Netaji never returned to India.

Americk Singh Gill, a former INA man in his book Indian National Army—Secret Service also writes that, "I was thinking that Netaji had put up a mighty camouflage and curtain with the story of the aircrash", indicating that many of those who had been close to Netaji had found it difficult to suddenly believe that he had died in the air crash at Taipei.

There is certainly more than what meets the eye in the sudden disappearance of Netaji in mid-1945, and if the Americans are still investigating the assassination of President John Kennedy then there is no reason why the Indian people, if not their government, cannot move international agencies and the present governments of Russia, Japan, UK, Vietnam, China, Mangolia, Afghanistan and America to release from their archives any confidential material for scrutiny which could reveal the final years of this great patriot.

The Shah Nawaz and Khosla Commissions did to my mind an incomplete and rushed job by just buying the Taipei air crash theory. We often entrust such enquiries to politicians and members of the judiciary. Many of them have little idea of the peculiar terrain, topography and distances of the Far East, all inter-related factors in Netaji’s journeys to that part of the world and his sudden disappearance. It is time for a full-fledged Commission with the right people on it, to find out how and when Netaji met his end.

[Anuj Dhar]

It is great to see a general discussing an issue that most wont like to out of prejudice or disinterst. Thanks for posting it, I was no aware of it.

I wanted to make some points.

when as believed by many Netaji took the final flight out of Saigon to Manchuria from where he is understood to have crossed over into the Soviet Union and obscurity

According to the official version given out by the Japanese and Habibur Rahman Netaji was flying to Tokyo at the time of the crash. But later on intelligence teams found out that it was a lie -- Bose was flying to Manchuria with a view to cross over to the USSR. This fact has to be borne in mind.

The Japanese later had to admit that Bose was heading to the USSR, but Rahaman did not change his view till his death in Pakistan in 1970s. His stance was attributed to an oath of secrecy that I have discussed in my book. Mukherjee Commission also confirmed that Bose was flying to the USSR. But what happned next we dont know because proper inquiries have not been made or possibly they have been made but their findings are not public. I personally think our govt knows the facts whatever they are.

What was Netaji going to do in the middle of nowhere in Taiwan, when all around him the Axis Powers were collapsing one after the other?

Well the line I take is this. There was no air crash -- it was a smokescreen to cover Bose's escape. Bose never visited Taiwan on or around 18th August 1945. He seems to separated from his fellow travellers at Tournae on the night of 17th August. The entire story of the crash and Bose's death was cooked up by the Japanese and Habib.