NEW DELHI:The declassification of files on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose has had an unexpected political impact. The ‘political masterstroke’ by West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has created ripples in the Left political spectrum by straining the good old relationship between the All India Forward Bloc (AIFB), the party founded by Netaji, and the CPI(M).
The AIFB now blames that the CPI(M), which ruled West Bengal for 34 long years, had been consistently ignoring the pleas made by it—one of the long-time partners in the Left Front—to declassify the details regarding its founder.
Now, Mamata has done it in grand style. She has not only published the details regarding Netaji but has also ensured that the DVDs are delivered to the AIFB headquarters in Kolkata. “The Left’s miss is bound to be Mamata’s gain,’’ G Devarajan, National Secretary of AIFB, told The Sunday Standard. According to him, the CPI(M) which sat on those files for decades gave Mamata a great opportunity and she made the most of it.
“It was a big mistake on the part of the CPI(M) as it did not respond to our repeated pleas to declassify the details. They did not realise the reverence and emotional connect that people still have for Netaji,’’ he said.
The AIFB leadership is facing pressure from the cadres on why it failed to ensure the declassification of details on Netaji while it was in power with the CPI(M). The first tremor was felt in AIFB itself as one of its MLAs, Udayan Guha, quit the party and is rumoured to be joining the Trinamool Congress.
“It is only natural for the cadres to ask questions as to if Mamata could do it, why could not we? It is not that we did not request the CPI(M), which controlled the Home Department for decades, to declassify the Netaji files. We did make repeated pleas. Maybe, AIFB as a Left Front partner could have put more pressure,’’ said Devarajan, who had led a rally from Kanyakumari to Delhi demanding the declassification of Netaji files.
Recently, Left Front convenor Biman Bose claimed that no such requests were made when the Leftists were in power. But Devarajan now calls it a “wrong statement”.
“Our ministers had even made written requests to share the details regarding Netaji. It was only natural that then CM Jyoti Basu knew all about the details in the files, but they never shared it with us,’’ he claimed.
According to the veteran leader, Mamata’s move is a “political masterstroke’’.
“She has succeeded in cornering the Left, blaming the Congress and putting pressure on the BJP while taking all the credit with her single action. She has also won over Bengali bhadraloks, who are still emotionally connected with Subhas Chandra Bose in a big way,’’ he rued.
The AIFB leaders also believe that the CPI(M) could have done more justice to Netaji, as it was with the help of the communist party that he could reach Kabul in 1941. But with the Russian Communist Party putting pressure on the Indian communist party not to fight against the British government, the latter changed its policies.
The Mamata government has handed over all details regarding Netaji—including DVDs, transcripts, paper cuttings and personal letters—to the AIFB leaders. The AIFB is now planning to come out with a publication on all these details. It has requested the Union government as well as the Odisha government to declassify whatever documents regarding Netaji that they are in possession of.