2022 is a crucial year. This year we celebrate the 75th anniversary of India's independence and 125th birth anniversary of the man who accelerated the exit of the British Raj: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. It was Netaji and his INA, which gave the final and decisive blow to end the Raj. 

Yet, unfortunately, even today Netaji's works remain inaccessible to common citizens. The volumes containing his speeches, writings, correspondence and photographs published by his family are not only inadequate and poorly produced but also barely available. If we compare the number of printed pages in Netaji's collected works that cover his active political life from 1921 to 1945 with those of Mahatma Gandhi and Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, the results are shocking. Whereas, the Collected Works of Mahatma Gandhi span over 30,000 printed pages and the Selected Works of Jawaharlal Nehru is spread over nearly 9,000 pages for this period, the number of printed pages for Netaji's Collected Works is a minuscule 3,345 pages. 

The reason for this deplorable lack of material on Netaji is not because he wrote or spoke any less than any other leader of our freedom struggle, but because no sincere and concerted effort has been made to prepare a comprehensive collection of his spoken and written words. There is a huge amount of material available in contemporary newspapers and journals, various archives and also in personal collections, which remain unutilised and outside the published works.

We therefore request Prime Minister Narendra Modi

• To direct the appropriate authority to initiate the compilation of the most comprehensive collected works of Netaji on this 125th anniversary and complete it in a time-bound manner. We also request the Prime Minister to acquire from Netaji's family all relevant material for this purpose if necessary.
• To establish an institution of excellence to function as the centre for all information and research on Netaji, the Indian National Army, India's freedom struggle and related topics.

These critically important activities cannot be left under the control of Netaji's family. Netaji belongs to the nation and the nation must bear the responsibility.