03-28-2005, 01:03 AM
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Truth on Netaji
The Pioneer Edit Desk
The myth and mystique around Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose overshadows that of every other contemporary Indian leader even 60 years after he allegedly died in an air crash in Taiwan. He is still revered, almost worshipped, across the country despite the politically incorrect alliance he struck with the Axis powers during the War. The only Congress leader of consequence to challenge Mahatma Gandhi's supremacy, Subhas Bose attracted support and sympathy from most nationalists in the 1940s for the manner in which he was hounded out of the Congress by the Gandhi-led "establishment".
Paradoxically, even as Gandhiji's halo remains undiminished, Netaji's charm too has lost none of its sheen. Even those who disagree with his politics, particularly association with the sadistic Tojo regime of Japan during the War, fervently believe Netaji supped with the devil only for a larger cause-freedom of our shackled motherland. His patriotism and militancy are the subject of modern fables:
The daring escape from house-arrest in Kolkata, the hair-raising journey to Kabul and Moscow en route to Berlin, an incredible submarine voyage from Europe to Japan, the arrival in Singapore to launch the Indian National Army, and the rallying of colonised India with the cry "Give me blood and I will give you freedom"-have contributed to the making of the Netaji legend. For decades after Independence, millions believed Jawaharlal Nehru would not have remained Prime Minister if Subhas Bose were to miraculously reappear and stake claim to the inheritance. It is because of the perceived differences between them, dating back to the Tripuri Session of the AICC in 1941 and confirmed by Nehru's decision in 1947 not to absorb INA soldiers into the Indian Army, that suspicions have lingered about a disinformation campaign regarding Netaji's "death".
Although successive Prime Ministers have appointed commissions of inquiry ostensibly to unearth the facts, none reached a definitive conclusion. As a result, the uneasy feeling persists that the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty had reason to cover up the truth-which many, including Netaji's elder brother Sarat Bose, allege Jawaharlal knew. It is, therefore, creditable that the Justice MK Mukherjee Commission appointed by Mr LK Advani when he was Home Minister, has successfully unearthed many new facets of this abiding mystery despite the passage of time. Most importantly, the Commission has received a categorical denial from Taiwan about a plane crash having taken place at Taihoku airport on August 18, 1945, in which we were told all these years, Netaji had died. As revealed in a series of reports in this newspaper, he appears to have been very much alive at the end of World War II and could even have winded his way back to India through Stalin's Russia and Mao's China.
The opinion of acclaimed handwriting expert B Lal that there are striking similarities between writings penned by Bose and a person who went by the tantalising name Gumnami Baba in UP during the 1960s, has deepened the mystery. In this background, the Government of India must allow the Mukherjee Commission to probe a major aspect of Netaji's post-War whereabouts, namely, his reported presence in Siberia. For this, the Commission needs to visit Moscow and examine the relevant files in the KGB archives that have been declassified in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse. If the Government fails to facilitate this, suspicions that the Congress does not want the truth about Netaji to be excavated, shall only become firmer than ever.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
The Pioneer Edit Desk
The myth and mystique around Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose overshadows that of every other contemporary Indian leader even 60 years after he allegedly died in an air crash in Taiwan. He is still revered, almost worshipped, across the country despite the politically incorrect alliance he struck with the Axis powers during the War. The only Congress leader of consequence to challenge Mahatma Gandhi's supremacy, Subhas Bose attracted support and sympathy from most nationalists in the 1940s for the manner in which he was hounded out of the Congress by the Gandhi-led "establishment".
Paradoxically, even as Gandhiji's halo remains undiminished, Netaji's charm too has lost none of its sheen. Even those who disagree with his politics, particularly association with the sadistic Tojo regime of Japan during the War, fervently believe Netaji supped with the devil only for a larger cause-freedom of our shackled motherland. His patriotism and militancy are the subject of modern fables:
The daring escape from house-arrest in Kolkata, the hair-raising journey to Kabul and Moscow en route to Berlin, an incredible submarine voyage from Europe to Japan, the arrival in Singapore to launch the Indian National Army, and the rallying of colonised India with the cry "Give me blood and I will give you freedom"-have contributed to the making of the Netaji legend. For decades after Independence, millions believed Jawaharlal Nehru would not have remained Prime Minister if Subhas Bose were to miraculously reappear and stake claim to the inheritance. It is because of the perceived differences between them, dating back to the Tripuri Session of the AICC in 1941 and confirmed by Nehru's decision in 1947 not to absorb INA soldiers into the Indian Army, that suspicions have lingered about a disinformation campaign regarding Netaji's "death".
Although successive Prime Ministers have appointed commissions of inquiry ostensibly to unearth the facts, none reached a definitive conclusion. As a result, the uneasy feeling persists that the Nehru-Gandhi dynasty had reason to cover up the truth-which many, including Netaji's elder brother Sarat Bose, allege Jawaharlal knew. It is, therefore, creditable that the Justice MK Mukherjee Commission appointed by Mr LK Advani when he was Home Minister, has successfully unearthed many new facets of this abiding mystery despite the passage of time. Most importantly, the Commission has received a categorical denial from Taiwan about a plane crash having taken place at Taihoku airport on August 18, 1945, in which we were told all these years, Netaji had died. As revealed in a series of reports in this newspaper, he appears to have been very much alive at the end of World War II and could even have winded his way back to India through Stalin's Russia and Mao's China.
The opinion of acclaimed handwriting expert B Lal that there are striking similarities between writings penned by Bose and a person who went by the tantalising name Gumnami Baba in UP during the 1960s, has deepened the mystery. In this background, the Government of India must allow the Mukherjee Commission to probe a major aspect of Netaji's post-War whereabouts, namely, his reported presence in Siberia. For this, the Commission needs to visit Moscow and examine the relevant files in the KGB archives that have been declassified in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's collapse. If the Government fails to facilitate this, suspicions that the Congress does not want the truth about Netaji to be excavated, shall only become firmer than ever.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->