Netaji files: This is why Subhas Chandra Bose's ashes were not brought back from Japan

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday made public digital copies of 100 secret files relating to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose on his 119th birth anniversary, which could throw some light on the controversy over his death.

Among the files is a cabinet secretariat's note dated February 06, 1995 which said the government had already accepted the position that Netaji had died in a plane crash in August 1945.

The note titled "Netaji ashes in Tokyo" mulled over a "proposal to bring the mortal remains of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose from Japan to India."

The note said that taking the initiative to bring back his ashes (which were lying at the Bose institute in Japan) "would not be advisable”.

As per the note, the Home Ministry took into consideration the view of the External Affairs Ministry and of the Intelligence Bureau.

"(The) IB's views are to the effect that it would not be advisable to take any initiative to bring the ashes to India as there is no demand from any quarter for this. If the ashes are brought to India, the people of West Bengal are likely to construe it as an imposition on them of the official version of Netaji`s death."

"If no decision is taken by 1995, in which year the Bose Academy proposed to have the last memorial service, India may be asked by Renkoji temple to take charge of the urn containing the ashes whereby we may have no alternative but to store them in our Mission in Tokyo," the 1995 note prepared under the PV Narasimha Rao government said.

"The Government of India was paying for the upkeep of the mortal remains in Renkoji Temple and the management could be persuaded to continue with this arrangement if the upkeep charges were increased," the note said.