Mamata Banerjee declassifies files on Netaji and allied cabinet meetings held during 1938-47

After declassifying the intelligence files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal state government declassified files on cabinet meetings that were held during the pre-independence era between 1938-47. “We have declassified state cabinet papers from 1938 to 1947 today. Total 401 cabinet files of the pre-independence era were declassified. The declassification of these files will throw light on the history of pre-independence era. The files will be available with the state library and public archive. I will hand over a copy of the CD containing digital data of Netaji files to the President of India, Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha speaker,” said Banerjee while addressing reporters at Nabanna – state secretariat, before leaving for Delhi.

The Chief Minister will be leaving for Delhi today to attend Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal-convened Chief Minister’s meet. Banerjee also highlighted that the digitisation of files is a step towards Digital India program. “Digitisation of files is one such step taken by us towards Digital India program. Digitisation of files after independence will be done in a phase wise manner in future. In this age of internet and social media, we believe in transparency. That is why we declassified files. People must know the truth. We hope the stand taken by our government regarding declassification of files will be adopted by other governments also,” she added.

On September 18, after 67 years, as many as 64 Netaji files with the Bengal government were made public in the Kolkata Police museum. While the hard copies of the Netaji files were placed inside the wooden and glass cabinets, ten desktops were installed inside the museum, where visitors can browse through the data of the files in digital format.

All 64 intelligence files, 55 with the then Special Branch of Calcutta Police and nine with the state’s IB, were thrown open for public from September 21. The 12,744-page dossier, however, opened up new avenues about Netaji’s interactions with people, his personal life and his dreams about freeing India from the British rule.