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Centre gets HC prod on plan to publish secret info on Netaji
In a setback to the Government’s attempt to sweep under the carpet a 62-year-old manuscript containing crucial data about the mysterious disappearance of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, the Delhi HC recently directed the Ministry of Defence to state within two weeks as to when it proposed to publish the work kept secret for over six decades.
The manuscript titled “History of Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army)”, prepared by renowned historian Praful Chandra Gupta in 1950 is the only work commissioned by the Government of India on the activities of INA and the fate of its leaders, in particular Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
The occasion for the Court to intervene was an order passed by the Central Information Commission (CIC) directing the Centre to furnish the document to the RTI applicant Chandrachur Ghosh, who is an office bearer of a trust called Mission Netaji. Challenging this order, the Centre appealed to Delhi High Court claiming the CIC direction was opposed to the country’s economic interest.
Moreover, the Centre has claimed the document is “classified” - a status that has been questioned on the ground that a 1950 work is outdated unless the Government intended to review it. The manuscript is currently lying with the History division of the Ministry of Defence for the past fifty years with not a single attempt being made to revise or publish it.
Justice Vipin Sanghi of the Delhi HC refused to buy the Centre’s excuse and directed the Ministry of Defence to preserve the manuscript in its original form. Posting the matter two weeks from Monday, the judge directed the Centre to indicate the time-frame within which it intended to publish the original work. The order has served a huge blow to the Centre, which earlier denied any move to publish the 1950 document but later conceded by agreeing to come out with an abridged version of the said work.
For RTI applicant Ghosh, a self-professed activist determined to unearth details about the life and death of Netaji, the order came as a shot in the arm. His lawyer Anirudha Rajput had produced before the Court a copy of the oral evidence of eminent historian RC Majumdar recorded before the one-man Commission of Inquiry into the disappearance of Netaji on December 5, 1972.
Majumdar, who interacted frequently with the author Praful Chandra Gupta, categorically stated, “He (Gupta) wrote a big volume but that has not been published, and now I understand that it will never be published…I asked him (Gupta) why it was not being published. I was told that they (Government) said that it would have a bad effect on the morale of the Indian Army.” In the year 2007, the then Defence Minister, in his response to a question in Parliament admitted “there is no proposal” with the Government to publish Gupta’s work.
In a setback to the Government’s attempt to sweep under the carpet a 62-year-old manuscript containing crucial data about the mysterious disappearance of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, the Delhi HC recently directed the Ministry of Defence to state within two weeks as to when it proposed to publish the work kept secret for over six decades.
The manuscript titled “History of Azad Hind Fauj (Indian National Army)”, prepared by renowned historian Praful Chandra Gupta in 1950 is the only work commissioned by the Government of India on the activities of INA and the fate of its leaders, in particular Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.
The occasion for the Court to intervene was an order passed by the Central Information Commission (CIC) directing the Centre to furnish the document to the RTI applicant Chandrachur Ghosh, who is an office bearer of a trust called Mission Netaji. Challenging this order, the Centre appealed to Delhi High Court claiming the CIC direction was opposed to the country’s economic interest.
Moreover, the Centre has claimed the document is “classified” - a status that has been questioned on the ground that a 1950 work is outdated unless the Government intended to review it. The manuscript is currently lying with the History division of the Ministry of Defence for the past fifty years with not a single attempt being made to revise or publish it.
Justice Vipin Sanghi of the Delhi HC refused to buy the Centre’s excuse and directed the Ministry of Defence to preserve the manuscript in its original form. Posting the matter two weeks from Monday, the judge directed the Centre to indicate the time-frame within which it intended to publish the original work. The order has served a huge blow to the Centre, which earlier denied any move to publish the 1950 document but later conceded by agreeing to come out with an abridged version of the said work.
For RTI applicant Ghosh, a self-professed activist determined to unearth details about the life and death of Netaji, the order came as a shot in the arm. His lawyer Anirudha Rajput had produced before the Court a copy of the oral evidence of eminent historian RC Majumdar recorded before the one-man Commission of Inquiry into the disappearance of Netaji on December 5, 1972.
Majumdar, who interacted frequently with the author Praful Chandra Gupta, categorically stated, “He (Gupta) wrote a big volume but that has not been published, and now I understand that it will never be published…I asked him (Gupta) why it was not being published. I was told that they (Government) said that it would have a bad effect on the morale of the Indian Army.” In the year 2007, the then Defence Minister, in his response to a question in Parliament admitted “there is no proposal” with the Government to publish Gupta’s work.
