New Delhi, Feb 10 (UNI) The government on Thursday told the Rajya Sabha that the UK, the US, Russia and Japan have responded to India’s efforts to obtain files and records relating to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, but China’s response has not been received. Minister of States in the External Affairs Ministry V Muraleedharan gave details of the responses by each country in a written reply to the House. The United Kingdom has informed that 62 files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose are already available on the websites of the National Archives and the British Library, the Minister said.
The US has informed that they do not hold any historical records of over 30 years and their archival records of that period were not digitised. Further, the US said that locating these documents would require extensive research of the records of different US agencies and “they will not be able to do so”. Russia has conveyed that they were unable to find any documents in the Russian archives pertaining to Netaji, even after additional investigations following India’s request. Japan had declassified two files on Netaji, which are part of their Archives and available in the public domain, he added.
The Minister said that Japan transferred these files and they were retained in the National Archives of India. Japan has also conveyed that if there are any additional documents on Netaji, these would be declassified as per their policies. Replying to another query on reasons for not conducting DNA test of the ashes at Renkoji Temple in Japan to clarify the matter once and for all, the Minister said that one of the terms of reference of the government constituted Justice Mukherjee Commission was “whether ashes in the Japanese temple are ashes of Netaji.”
