‘12 files on Netaji’s activities between 1941-42 held back’
KOLKATA: The declassification of Netaji files by the Bengal government is revealing more puzzling gaps than it's solving old ones. It turns out that 12 files placed before the justice Mukherjee Commission between 2001 and 2005 were not declassified on Friday.
What's more, 13 files in the Kolkata Police archives, released on Friday, had not been sent to the commission, says a researcher who had deposed before the panel. "I am tallying the files that were sent to the Mukherjee Commission with those that have been declassified. Altogether, 61 files were sent to the panel. The government has now come out with 64 files. But several of them do not match. Among those that have not been declassified are reviews of revolutionary activities of 1941 and 1942 by the Intelligence Branch," said Jayanta Chowdhury.
File no. 1621-42 that was not sent to the commission but has now surfaced is marked 'confidential' and is on Netaji's nephew Sisir Kumar Bose. It contains a foreign mail interception memo from the security control office at 3/1 Pretoria Street and is dated July 2, 1953. The intercepted letter was written by Sisir K Bose and addressed to Frau Emilie Schenkl in Vienna. It was posted on June 16, 1953.
READ ALSO: Snooping on Netaji's family 'proves he was alive after 1945', researchers say
Netaji and India's dictatorship urge
Assistant sub-inspector Becharam Mandal carried out the interception and photographed it before it was delivered. The memo confirms that a copy was kept and its contents forwarded to various intelligence officers, including K S Nair, assistant director of Intelligence Bureau under the home ministry. But the letter is not in the file.
Chowdhury says the missing letter is extremely significant and should have figured in the file. "There is no plausible reason why the letter went missing unless its contents were considered damaging at a later date and removed from the contents. Had SB officials felt the contents were inappropriate, the note would not have been there at all," he said.
An entry in file no. 357-42 has led to a rather curious inconsistency on Netaji's 'marriage' to Emilie Schenkl. Dated May 4, 1946, it contains a weekly survey of intelligence gathering on Netaji. It says: 'During secret interception, a very interesting letter from one Emilie Schenkl of Vienna addressed to Sarat Chandra Bose was noticed. Emilie Schenkl claims to be the widow of Subhas Chandra Bose... Subhas Bose proposed to her and they were married in January 1942. On November 29, 1942, a daughter was born... The marriage was not registered and was performed according to Hindu rites, on account of the German objection to marriage of Germans with foreigners.'
READ ALSO: 10 things to know about Netaji's declassified files
What's more, 13 files in the Kolkata Police archives, released on Friday, had not been sent to the commission, says a researcher who had deposed before the panel. "I am tallying the files that were sent to the Mukherjee Commission with those that have been declassified. Altogether, 61 files were sent to the panel. The government has now come out with 64 files. But several of them do not match. Among those that have not been declassified are reviews of revolutionary activities of 1941 and 1942 by the Intelligence Branch," said Jayanta Chowdhury.
File no. 1621-42 that was not sent to the commission but has now surfaced is marked 'confidential' and is on Netaji's nephew Sisir Kumar Bose. It contains a foreign mail interception memo from the security control office at 3/1 Pretoria Street and is dated July 2, 1953. The intercepted letter was written by Sisir K Bose and addressed to Frau Emilie Schenkl in Vienna. It was posted on June 16, 1953.
READ ALSO: Snooping on Netaji's family 'proves he was alive after 1945', researchers say
Netaji and India's dictatorship urge
Assistant sub-inspector Becharam Mandal carried out the interception and photographed it before it was delivered. The memo confirms that a copy was kept and its contents forwarded to various intelligence officers, including K S Nair, assistant director of Intelligence Bureau under the home ministry. But the letter is not in the file.
Chowdhury says the missing letter is extremely significant and should have figured in the file. "There is no plausible reason why the letter went missing unless its contents were considered damaging at a later date and removed from the contents. Had SB officials felt the contents were inappropriate, the note would not have been there at all," he said.
An entry in file no. 357-42 has led to a rather curious inconsistency on Netaji's 'marriage' to Emilie Schenkl. Dated May 4, 1946, it contains a weekly survey of intelligence gathering on Netaji. It says: 'During secret interception, a very interesting letter from one Emilie Schenkl of Vienna addressed to Sarat Chandra Bose was noticed. Emilie Schenkl claims to be the widow of Subhas Chandra Bose... Subhas Bose proposed to her and they were married in January 1942. On November 29, 1942, a daughter was born... The marriage was not registered and was performed according to Hindu rites, on account of the German objection to marriage of Germans with foreigners.'
READ ALSO: 10 things to know about Netaji's declassified files
Chowdhury points out that in the book 'Letters to Emilie Schenkl: Netaji Collected Works (vol 7)', published by Netaji Research Bureau, the editorial footnote by Sisir Bose states that Netaji had secretly married Schenkl on December 26, 1937. "This discrepancy of more than four years is interesting. I wonder which version is correct and how the mistake happened," he said.
Chowdhury is also surprised by the relative lack of intelligence reports on the supposed plane crash in which Netaji allegedly died in Taiwan in August 1945. "For someone who was being tracked so assiduously for 'subversive' activities and whose family was under surveillance, one expects a lot of reports on the plane crash and how family members, friends and followers reacted to it. But strangely, there is very little on it. Also there is no reference to the ashes. What is seen instead is that after the British government, the state government on the behest of the Centre continues to be extremely active in snooping on Netaji's family," he added. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/12-files-on-Netajis-activities-between-1941-42-held-back/articleshow/49029562.cms
| Sunday , September 20 , 2015 |
The con-fidential game- THE FINE ART OF ‘RELIABLE INFORMATION’ |
| Meghdeep Bhattacharyya |
.jpg) One of the files declassified by the Bengal government on Friday The so-called Netaji files, bereft of any explosive information and laden with old newspaper clippings, offer a peek into the woolly world of the intelligence-gathering bureaucracy that has perfected self-preservation into a fine art. The view can be fascinating for some (those sampling the curated excerpts served up on a platter) and frustrating for others (those who curated the gems after wrestling with 12,744 pages of impermeable prose and those who were supposed to take decisions long ago on the basis of such intelligence inputs.) A beginners' primer will not be out of place before stepping into the universe of establishments as evocatively christened as "Calcutta Police Security Control Office" or Intelligence Branch, from where "surveys" were conducted on Netaji's descendants. " Confidential", "top secret" and " secret": If a document bears any of these stamps, chances are that a wet blanket is about to be spread out. A sample: File 10 has an arresting gem of intelligence, listed under the head "Unveiling the statue of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose". The date is November 16, 1947, a few months after India won independence. If the pulse is racing and adrenaline rushing in anticipation of some explosive revelation, here it pops: "At the unveiling ceremony (300 including 50 girls) held at the crossing of Nimtalaghat Street and Ram Seth Road, on 16.11.47." The files also give an insight into what "secret information" means. Dated March 12, 1959, one input from the Calcutta Police Security Control Office on Pretoria Street says: "A secret information d/- 4.3.59 reveals that Shri Amiya Nath Bose(Netaji's nephew), 1, Woodburn Park Calcutta, has requested Mr. Wilhelm Keppler, Hamburg, Othmarochen, West Germany, to sent him an article on the works and activities of Shri Subhas Chandra Bose during his stay in Germany during 1941-1943." In the realm of intelligence, evidently there is a difference between "secret information" and "reliable information". In order to discern the difference, an example follows: An extract from a "weekly survey" by the police in July 1959 says: "According to a reliable information, dt. 26.6.59, Mrs. N.C. Vetter, Wein IX/69, Austria, Washington, 41 has congratulated Shri Amiya Nath Bose... for sending Academy Brochure to his friend Professor Mckgowan. Mrs. Vetter has also informed Shri Bose that she can send newspaper cuttings in German about Netaji if this be useful to him." The nature of the contents of the documents with "secret information" and "reliable information" does not appear to be dramatically dissimilar. However, they have been differently worded probably because of the source. The one with "secret information" does not mention any source, which suggests a police officer "intercepted" (the indecorous act of opening and reading a letter addressed to someone else) the mail and "accessed" the information. But the "reliable information" is credited to a "casual agent's report". Intelligence veterans said today that casual agents meant an informal source who supplied information in exchange for money or protection. A less fashionable term used by the initiated is "informers". Some of the files offer a lesson in drafting replies with enough room for manoeuvre. One file contains notes exchanged between intelligence officials on a passport application by Amiya Bose for travel to Europe along with his wife Jyotsna Bose. A memo related to a no-objection certificate for granting the passport says: "Copy forwarded to... asst. director, Intelligence Bureau, New Delhi for information. Amiya Nath Bose is the Secretary, Foreign Affairs Sub-Committee of the Socialist Republican Party and is proceeding to the U.K., France, Switzerland and Turkey as a representative of the 'Hindustan Standard' and 'Ananda Bazar Patrika'." If the memo was meant to serve as the basis for a no-objection certificate, the officer appears to have issued it without using any word or phrase that can pin him down later. The files have several newspaper clippings. A newspaper by definition means it will be circulated among many readers. Why newspaper clippings, which would already have been read by the public, were labelled "classified" in the first place and why they had to be "declassified" for people to read them will remain one of the greatest mysteries of our time. For instance, a "sensational" claim that suggested Netaji was alive after 1945 has made it to the files in the form of a Howrah CID report. The input is actually based on a report in theBlitz, a Bombay-based tabloid, on March 26, 1949. By any yardstick, a newspaper report that has already been printed cannot be termed "classified". The proof lies in several newspaper reports in 2013 quoting a book that mentions the Blitz report. In effect, the Bengal government has "declassified" a claim that was already in the public domain. Footnote: One news clipping in the files declassified on Friday suggests how little things have changed since 1940. A clipping dated June 13, 1940, from the Amrita Bazar Patrika says: "The first big drive of Alderman Subhas Chandra Bose to run the administration of the Calcutta Corporation... (was to) strike off its (the newspaper's) name from the list of the daily newspapers for the publication of corporation advertisements." Among the six selected for the advertisements was the Anandabazar Patrika from ABP, which also publishes The Telegraph. The clipping says the "move, it is understood, evoked a spirited protest from the European members". Matters have come full circle since then. On March 14, 2012, the Bengal government removed from the state-run library list some newspapers, including the Anandabazar Patrika and The Telegraph. |
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