07-29-2006, 02:26 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Government not interested in truth </b>
Murli Manohar Joshi | BJP leader
The Memorandum of Action Taken Report by the Home Ministry over the 600-plus page report submitted by a reputed former judge of the Supreme Court is plainly arbitrary. It states that the Government "has examined the report submitted by the Commission on November 8, 2005, in detail and have not agreed with the findings that - a) Netaji did not die in the plane crash; b) the ashes in Renkoji temple were not those of Netaji".
It may be recognised that Mr Tarakeshwar Pal, the learned Senior Counsel appearing for the Government, fairly submitted that there were glaring discrepancies in the evidence adduced regarding the accident as also the date and time of death, death certificate and cremation of Netaji. It is indeed intriguing that even then the Government rejects the JMCI report.
The Congress-led Government thus dogmatically holds on to its stand, as expressed by Jawaharlal Nehru in Parliament in 1952. Nehru stated, "the question of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's death is, I think, settled beyond doubt. There can be no enquiry about that." The Government, therefore, finds it convenient to support the reports of two previous official inquiries (ignoring the dissentient report of Suresh Chandra Bose) that the Nehru and Indira regimes had been forced to launch.
Both the GD Khosla Commission (1970-74) and the Shah Nawaz Committee (1956) had concluded - without ever contacting the Government of Taiwan - that Netaji had died in Taipei. Shah Nawaz Khan was a Congress MP, and GD Khosla a friend of Nehrus who wrote Indira Gandhi's biography as he disposed off Netaji inquiry work. Both were alleged to have produced reports to suit the Congress line.
Not many people know that Justice Mukherjee's report isn't the first such report to be rejected by the Government. One of the three members of the Shah Nawaz Committee, Suresh Chandra Bose, Netaji's elder brother, had submitted a dissenting report, which was ignored. The available residual evidence and witnesses' accounts were enough for Bose to establish that Netaji could not have died, and that he escaped to the USSR.
Suresh Bose wrote the following in his report about the other members of the committee, Shah Nawaz Khan and SN Maitra: "My colleagues, both connected with the Government, have tried to secure and to manipulate the evidence, so that it could easily conform with the Prime Minister's (Nehru's) statements."
He added, "I would, with all humility, appeal to my esteemed countrymen not to accept the reports submitted by learned colleagues or by my humble self, but to make a demand to our Government to place at their disposal the whole of the evidence that was made available to the Committee and... form their own opinion after a careful perusal and consideration of the same, and, if the general opinion be that the aircraft accident did not take place and that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose did not die, as alleged, to demand an impeachment of all those who have taken part in this nefarious game."
The Government did not publish this dissenting report of Suresh Bose.
It is not difficult to understand why the UPA Government has rejected the Commission's findings in one sentence, without giving any reason. The seven months taken to reject the report clearly reflects the Government's dilemma. The Government could not find any valid reason to reject Justice Mukherjee's findings based on new evidence and sharp reasoning.
The JMCI report cites an example how the Nehru Government hushed up a crucial evidence on Netaji's death issue. A month before the Shah Nawaz Committee report was made public, it had duly received copies of an official report from Taiwan, via the British High Commission in Delhi.
However, this report was neither mentioned in the Shah Nawaz report, nor heard of again until Justice Mukherjee discovered the recently declassified original report in London's National Archives. The Commission utilises it to reject the official version of Netaji's death.
The report also brings to light the wilful destruction of a top-secret PMO file, "Investigation into the circumstances leading to the death of Subhas Chandra Bose", by the Indira Gandhi Government at a time when it should have been made available to the Khosla Commission.
In the circumstances that the Government has rejected the JMCI findings, the onus of proving that Netaji's died in the air crash on August 18, 1945, is now on it. The Government must take the nation into confidence and give reasons why it has rejected the report. The Government must also answer questions that have been raised before and after its publication. One of them pertains to mysterious "ashes and other remains" of Netaji, which were received by the External Affairs Minister in 1954. The Commission had asked the Government in August 2004 whatever had become of those "ashes and other remains" of Netaji after they were brought to India. But there was no pertinent answer forthcoming, the JMCI report suggests.
The Government must come out with the reasons for rejecting the JMCI report, which should be discussed in Parliament. This act of the Government, instead of resolving the controversy, has kept it alive. The facts and circumstances as narrated in this report require a further vigorous probe in this matter.
The UPA Government has a lot of explaining to do to the nation about the actual fate of Netaji.
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Murli Manohar Joshi | BJP leader
The Memorandum of Action Taken Report by the Home Ministry over the 600-plus page report submitted by a reputed former judge of the Supreme Court is plainly arbitrary. It states that the Government "has examined the report submitted by the Commission on November 8, 2005, in detail and have not agreed with the findings that - a) Netaji did not die in the plane crash; b) the ashes in Renkoji temple were not those of Netaji".
It may be recognised that Mr Tarakeshwar Pal, the learned Senior Counsel appearing for the Government, fairly submitted that there were glaring discrepancies in the evidence adduced regarding the accident as also the date and time of death, death certificate and cremation of Netaji. It is indeed intriguing that even then the Government rejects the JMCI report.
The Congress-led Government thus dogmatically holds on to its stand, as expressed by Jawaharlal Nehru in Parliament in 1952. Nehru stated, "the question of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's death is, I think, settled beyond doubt. There can be no enquiry about that." The Government, therefore, finds it convenient to support the reports of two previous official inquiries (ignoring the dissentient report of Suresh Chandra Bose) that the Nehru and Indira regimes had been forced to launch.
Both the GD Khosla Commission (1970-74) and the Shah Nawaz Committee (1956) had concluded - without ever contacting the Government of Taiwan - that Netaji had died in Taipei. Shah Nawaz Khan was a Congress MP, and GD Khosla a friend of Nehrus who wrote Indira Gandhi's biography as he disposed off Netaji inquiry work. Both were alleged to have produced reports to suit the Congress line.
Not many people know that Justice Mukherjee's report isn't the first such report to be rejected by the Government. One of the three members of the Shah Nawaz Committee, Suresh Chandra Bose, Netaji's elder brother, had submitted a dissenting report, which was ignored. The available residual evidence and witnesses' accounts were enough for Bose to establish that Netaji could not have died, and that he escaped to the USSR.
Suresh Bose wrote the following in his report about the other members of the committee, Shah Nawaz Khan and SN Maitra: "My colleagues, both connected with the Government, have tried to secure and to manipulate the evidence, so that it could easily conform with the Prime Minister's (Nehru's) statements."
He added, "I would, with all humility, appeal to my esteemed countrymen not to accept the reports submitted by learned colleagues or by my humble self, but to make a demand to our Government to place at their disposal the whole of the evidence that was made available to the Committee and... form their own opinion after a careful perusal and consideration of the same, and, if the general opinion be that the aircraft accident did not take place and that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose did not die, as alleged, to demand an impeachment of all those who have taken part in this nefarious game."
The Government did not publish this dissenting report of Suresh Bose.
It is not difficult to understand why the UPA Government has rejected the Commission's findings in one sentence, without giving any reason. The seven months taken to reject the report clearly reflects the Government's dilemma. The Government could not find any valid reason to reject Justice Mukherjee's findings based on new evidence and sharp reasoning.
The JMCI report cites an example how the Nehru Government hushed up a crucial evidence on Netaji's death issue. A month before the Shah Nawaz Committee report was made public, it had duly received copies of an official report from Taiwan, via the British High Commission in Delhi.
However, this report was neither mentioned in the Shah Nawaz report, nor heard of again until Justice Mukherjee discovered the recently declassified original report in London's National Archives. The Commission utilises it to reject the official version of Netaji's death.
The report also brings to light the wilful destruction of a top-secret PMO file, "Investigation into the circumstances leading to the death of Subhas Chandra Bose", by the Indira Gandhi Government at a time when it should have been made available to the Khosla Commission.
In the circumstances that the Government has rejected the JMCI findings, the onus of proving that Netaji's died in the air crash on August 18, 1945, is now on it. The Government must take the nation into confidence and give reasons why it has rejected the report. The Government must also answer questions that have been raised before and after its publication. One of them pertains to mysterious "ashes and other remains" of Netaji, which were received by the External Affairs Minister in 1954. The Commission had asked the Government in August 2004 whatever had become of those "ashes and other remains" of Netaji after they were brought to India. But there was no pertinent answer forthcoming, the JMCI report suggests.
The Government must come out with the reasons for rejecting the JMCI report, which should be discussed in Parliament. This act of the Government, instead of resolving the controversy, has kept it alive. The facts and circumstances as narrated in this report require a further vigorous probe in this matter.
The UPA Government has a lot of explaining to do to the nation about the actual fate of Netaji.
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