01-28-2006, 09:34 PM
from http://www.missionnetaji.org/node/60
How PMO hushed up Top Secret Bose files -- 1
Anuj Dhar
If it were to explode now, the bombshell of Subhas Bose mystery could shake the office of the head of the Indian Government. No, it is not the usual diatribe against a dead Prime Minister. Something came to light recently, raising serious concerns about the handling of this volatile case by the Prime Minister's Office.
A little background is necessary here. Chances are that you would not have heard about this momentous event of 1978 that paved the way for the formation of the Mukherjee Commission. During the Emergency years, an incarcerated Professor Samar Guha, the lawmaker who had forced the Indira Gandhi Government to form the Khosla Commission in 1970, thrashed out with fellow prisoners, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani, the counter-attack. He had with him the inside details of Khosla's sham inquiry. From the ringside Guha saw through it all -- contradictions in evidence, the Government's misdeeds and Khosla's complicity.
Soon Vajpayee was the External Affairs Minister and Advani the Information and Broadcasting Minister in the Morarji Desai Cabinet. Resolutely staying with the Bose case, Guha, on his own, moved the battle to Parliament in the form of a motion. Lawmakers demanded that the matter be inquired into by three sitting judges of the Supreme Court of India. Restless Guha built up his case with heavy doses of facts. He cited how different witnesses to the Taipei crash relied upon by Khosla had made remarks so discrepant from each other that it appeared they were telling lies. Home Minister Charan Singh was no match for Guha, who was joined by others leveling serious charges on the Government and late Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru. Sensing that situation was going out of hand, the Prime Minister stood up to douse the fire.
This was August 28, 1978. Morarji shuffled through papers and appealed Guha to take back his motion. He did not want further problem, so he, in return, gave away the actual stand of the Government of India on the death of Subhas Bose.
"The Shah Nawaz Committee and the Khosla Commission held the report of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's death following a plane crash as true. Since then, reasonable doubts have been cast on the correctness in the two reports and various important contradictions in the testimony of the (mostly Japanese) witnesses have been noticed.
"Some further contemporary official documentary records have also become available. In the light of those doubts and contradictions and those records, Government (of India) finds it difficult to accept that the earlier conclusions are decisive."
Read it again. The Prime Minister unequivocally stated that there were "contemporary official documentary records" to set aside the crash theory built up mostly on the accounts rendered by unreliable witnesses. There was no ambiguity. The Prime Minister was looking through papers handed over by his office. Then, in years to come, the same statement was repeated, lastly by former Home Minister LK Advani. The catalyst for Advani's admission was scathing 1998 verdict of the Calcutta High Court, which took a special note of the Prime Minister's statement.
" ... there has been no positive attempt it seems after the statement by the Prime Minister in the year 1978 ... no serious effort in this behalf (resolving the Bose mystery) has been made (by the Government of India). It seems lapses have occurred from time to time .... It is therefore, necessary that respondents (Government) are told their silence may not be appreciated in the matter and they for obvious reasons ... should proceed in some effective manner to enquire into the circumstances of the death (of Bose) .... "
It looked so simple when the Mukherjee Commission directed the Government to make available to him these "contemporary official documentary records" on the basis of which Desai had been constrained to reject the eyewash reports of Shah Nawaz and GD Khosla. But do you know what Atal Bihari Vajpayee's PMO answered? In December 2001 the PMO stated that these records had vanished into thin air and, therefore, the PMO was unable to speculate what had made Desai make that statement.
That was nonsense. No Prime Minister would ever make a statement on the floor of the Lok Sabha at the end of a motion without checking up facts. Cornering the Government, the Commission cited a "Top Secret" PMO file ( 2/64/78-PM) containing clear references to the "official documents, notes and orders which led ... Desai to make the said statement on the floor of the Parliament".
And when the Government clammed up, Justice MK Mukherjee, a former Supreme Court judge, himself pursued the case with the PMO, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs. He met Home Minister LK Advani, who was at least affable, and his discourteous successor Shivraj Patil. Nothing came out. Some highly sensitive papers concerning the fate of one of the greatest Indians ever had been removed as part of what appeared to be a conspiracy in the Prime Minister's Office.
How PMO hushed up Top Secret Bose files -- 1
Anuj Dhar
If it were to explode now, the bombshell of Subhas Bose mystery could shake the office of the head of the Indian Government. No, it is not the usual diatribe against a dead Prime Minister. Something came to light recently, raising serious concerns about the handling of this volatile case by the Prime Minister's Office.
A little background is necessary here. Chances are that you would not have heard about this momentous event of 1978 that paved the way for the formation of the Mukherjee Commission. During the Emergency years, an incarcerated Professor Samar Guha, the lawmaker who had forced the Indira Gandhi Government to form the Khosla Commission in 1970, thrashed out with fellow prisoners, Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani, the counter-attack. He had with him the inside details of Khosla's sham inquiry. From the ringside Guha saw through it all -- contradictions in evidence, the Government's misdeeds and Khosla's complicity.
Soon Vajpayee was the External Affairs Minister and Advani the Information and Broadcasting Minister in the Morarji Desai Cabinet. Resolutely staying with the Bose case, Guha, on his own, moved the battle to Parliament in the form of a motion. Lawmakers demanded that the matter be inquired into by three sitting judges of the Supreme Court of India. Restless Guha built up his case with heavy doses of facts. He cited how different witnesses to the Taipei crash relied upon by Khosla had made remarks so discrepant from each other that it appeared they were telling lies. Home Minister Charan Singh was no match for Guha, who was joined by others leveling serious charges on the Government and late Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru. Sensing that situation was going out of hand, the Prime Minister stood up to douse the fire.
This was August 28, 1978. Morarji shuffled through papers and appealed Guha to take back his motion. He did not want further problem, so he, in return, gave away the actual stand of the Government of India on the death of Subhas Bose.
"The Shah Nawaz Committee and the Khosla Commission held the report of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's death following a plane crash as true. Since then, reasonable doubts have been cast on the correctness in the two reports and various important contradictions in the testimony of the (mostly Japanese) witnesses have been noticed.
"Some further contemporary official documentary records have also become available. In the light of those doubts and contradictions and those records, Government (of India) finds it difficult to accept that the earlier conclusions are decisive."
Read it again. The Prime Minister unequivocally stated that there were "contemporary official documentary records" to set aside the crash theory built up mostly on the accounts rendered by unreliable witnesses. There was no ambiguity. The Prime Minister was looking through papers handed over by his office. Then, in years to come, the same statement was repeated, lastly by former Home Minister LK Advani. The catalyst for Advani's admission was scathing 1998 verdict of the Calcutta High Court, which took a special note of the Prime Minister's statement.
" ... there has been no positive attempt it seems after the statement by the Prime Minister in the year 1978 ... no serious effort in this behalf (resolving the Bose mystery) has been made (by the Government of India). It seems lapses have occurred from time to time .... It is therefore, necessary that respondents (Government) are told their silence may not be appreciated in the matter and they for obvious reasons ... should proceed in some effective manner to enquire into the circumstances of the death (of Bose) .... "
It looked so simple when the Mukherjee Commission directed the Government to make available to him these "contemporary official documentary records" on the basis of which Desai had been constrained to reject the eyewash reports of Shah Nawaz and GD Khosla. But do you know what Atal Bihari Vajpayee's PMO answered? In December 2001 the PMO stated that these records had vanished into thin air and, therefore, the PMO was unable to speculate what had made Desai make that statement.
That was nonsense. No Prime Minister would ever make a statement on the floor of the Lok Sabha at the end of a motion without checking up facts. Cornering the Government, the Commission cited a "Top Secret" PMO file ( 2/64/78-PM) containing clear references to the "official documents, notes and orders which led ... Desai to make the said statement on the floor of the Parliament".
And when the Government clammed up, Justice MK Mukherjee, a former Supreme Court judge, himself pursued the case with the PMO, the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Home Affairs. He met Home Minister LK Advani, who was at least affable, and his discourteous successor Shivraj Patil. Nothing came out. Some highly sensitive papers concerning the fate of one of the greatest Indians ever had been removed as part of what appeared to be a conspiracy in the Prime Minister's Office.