When Subhas was arrested on 2nd July 1940 on flimsy ground, the Bengal Provincial Government - a coalition of the Krishak Praja Party of Fazlul Haq and the Muslim League, did nothing to help him. Instead they tried very hard to keep him interned. Needless to say Subhas Chandra Bose was extremely peeved by this attitude of a Government that called itself popular and accused it to be blatantly partial and communal. He said that he was arrested and his trial was going on the basis of two charges under the Defense of India Act - simultaneously. It was therefore illegal to imprison him without trial when his trial was in progress. When his pail petition was presented the Government attorney objected to it which was done at the behest of the Provincial Government of Bengal. This imprisonment without trial is happening right under the nose of a so called popular Government which claimed itself to be as such. The same Government was blatantly partial to the Muslims, because it acted exactly in the opposite way when a Muslim League member was tried under the same offense. Subhas cited the example of a certain Maulavi of Murapara whom the Government of Haq went all the way to get released. Subhas reminded Nazimuddin that he was an elected member of the Central Legislative Assembly. The Assembly sessions would begin from Nov 5 and the Government was responsible for ensuring that he should be able to participate in those sessions. Subhas claimed that it was purely out of revenge that he was indefinitely imprisoned despite his ill and failing health and the Government of Haq had not taken any steps for his release.
Subhas Chandra Bose knew that he had to go out of India in order to take advantage of the 2nd World War and seek the help of the enemies of Britain to fuel revolutionary activities within India. For that his escape was absolutely necessary and the escape was only possible if he stayed outside the prison.
It is to be noted that the Praja Krishak Party and Muslim League coalition lasted only till 1941 when Haq decided to join the Viceroy's Defense Council. He fell out of favour of Jinnah, while Nazimuddin was one of the most trusted lieutenants of Jinnah. So the coalition Government was about to fall. To prevent Muslim League from coming to power Shyama Prasad Mukherjee's Hindu Mahasabha joined hands with Praja Krishak Party and formed the Shyama Haq Government. Shyama Prasad therefore adopted the same strategy as that of Subhas, for the greater common interest of Bengal. But Shyama Haq Government was not to last. The poor handling of the terrible Bengal famine of 1943 and the onstrous atrocities committed by the British in Bengal in the wake of the Quit India Movement, the disastrous cyclone of 1943-44 for destroyed coastal Bengal, all led to the dissolution of the Government and paved the way of Suhrawardi's Muslim League to assume power in 1946, that would lead to the Direct Action Day and the consequent Great Calcutta killing - genocide of thousands of innocent people, mostly Hindus, who were targeted to be killed by Suhrawardi's Government.
Subhas wrote a similar letter to the Superintendent of the prison - Presidency Jail or Old Alipore jail. He indicated that he would go for an indefinite fast in protest against the injustice meted out to him by putting him behind bar without trial and not paying any heed to his requests. He said that the Government was blatantly communal and partial to the interests of the Muslims and therefore had no interest in releasing him, since he was neither a Muslim, nor the Maulavi of Murapara. He did not have any hope that his indefinite fast would have any impact on the Government and bureaucracy. His only hope that his death would expose the hypocrisy of the British Government and the communal Provincial Government alike. He said that it was very clear that the Provincial Government only took notice of the cases of injustices meted out to the Muslims. He expressed his hope that his death would bring in wider reaction from outside the country where he had some influence. He said that everything in this world perishes, but not ideals. Ideals will remain immortal at the sacred altar of the sacrifices. The immortal ideals express themselves in somebody else's life who take up the ideals. His sacrifice would thus help the country to become better. He warned against force feeding him as that would accentuate his death.