No information on fate of Subhas Bose: Great Britain

Not only did we go around digging for information in India, we also gave our best shot abroad inspire of meager resources available to us. Perhaps we were the first to approach the British Cabinet Office, which includes the UK Prime Minister’s Office, over the Subhas Bose death controversy and got this reply from them.

The right to information route to get to the truth about Netaji's disappearance is proving to be an uphill task -- both in India and outside. For a start, Mission Netaji's attempts to seek information from the British Government under that country's Freedom of Information Act have failed to yield anything.

Both the British Cabinet Office, which includes the Prime Minister's Office, and the Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) have informed Anuj Dhar of Mission Netaji that they are not holding any information on the fate of Subhas Chandra Bose.

Under the Freedom of Information Act (Foia), any information held by a public authority in the UK is exempt information if it, inter alia, relates to secret intelligence service and ties with friendly foreign nations. Information pertaining to Netaji's fate, which is a sensitive issue in India, would naturally have been handled by the intelligence services like MI5 and MI6, which are beyond the periphery of Foia.

The Government of British India had never confirmed the death of Bose even after thorough probes by several intelligence agencies. A declassified minute of a Cabinet meeting taken by Prime Minister Clement Attlee showed that the British Government held Bose to be alive 3 months after his reported death.

The FCO initially told Mission Netaji that they have "no information that Subhas Bose was alive after his reported death in a plane crash in 1945". "All the information the FCO held on Mr Bose is now available at the National Archives at Kew."

After the receipt of this answer, Mission Netaji requested the FCO to reconsider their decision. Their attention was drawn to the declassified records of Indian Political Intelligence (IPI) where it was recorded that Subhas Bose could be in the USSR after his death. In their subsequent reply dated 10 October 2006, the FCO stated that they "again carried out a comprehensive search" and that "the FCO holds no documents on this subject".

The Cabinet Office too told Mission Netaji that the information suggesting that Subhas Bose hadn't died in 1945 was "not held by the Cabinet Office". Following an appeal for a review, Howell James, Permanent Secretary, Government Communication, reiterated on 23 October 2006 that "the Cabinet Office does not hold any information relevant to your request". "I am sure you could obtain good results from the records held in The National Archives...."

During its visit to London, Mukherjee Commission examined some of the records kept in the National Archives at Kew and used them to shoot down the plane crash theory supported by Government of India. In addition, the Commission came to know of certain classified papers that were not to be declassified till 2021. Following the advice of Peter Archer, a House of Lords Member, the Commission repeatedly requested the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Delhi to request the British Government for an access to those papers. But the Ministry did not accord the matter the importance it deserved.