This new year Congress’s political miseries may increase. The Narendra Modi government is likely to declassify the most sensitive intelligence files related to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, a demand that has long been raised by historians and Bose’s family alike, just before the general elections of 2019.

The revelations could be damning for the Congress when put in the context of the snooping that the first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had run on the Bose family for years after his disappearance and the mystery surrounding his death and rumoured siting in Faizabad in Uttar Pradesh decades after Independence.

An eminent Bose export and historian Anuj Dhar told MyNation that it would be a proud moment for the nation. “We have long been promised that these intelligence files will be declassified, but I think now is the time. This is the closest that we could have come to declassification and the government should do it now. We expect that these records that will throw ultimate light on the life of Netaji will be declassified soon,” Dhar said.

The Modi government had declassified some files related to Netaji on January 23, 2016, after having promised his family a year earlier. Moreover, the Mamata Banerjee-led TMC government in West Bengal had led the quest as it had declassified some 64 files pertaining to Netaji in its possession. 

Meanwhile, recent developments indicate a momentum towards declassification.

PM Modi would be visiting Port Blair to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Netaji’s unfurling the national flag there. Netaji’s family members and their spokesperson Chandra Kumar Bose would be present during the ceremony.

PM Modi would rename three islands in Andaman and Nicobar. Ross Island, Neil Island and Havelock Island would be renamed as Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose Island, Shaheed Dweep and Swarak Dweep, respectively.

According to Dhar, the PM would also inaugurate the refurbished Bose museum in Red Fort sometime next year.