Name: Subhash Chandra Bose
Date of Birth: January 23, 1897
Death:
August 18, 1945
Did
he really die on August 18, 1945?
Now
that’s a billion dollar question and till date, no one has been able to answer
that correctly. There have been many theories, many investigations but still we
haven’t received any confirmed answer. Maybe we are not supposed to get any answer.
Maybe he did die in that plane crash. May be he lived in a different country
and supported India and the Indians who needed him. Maybe he became a sadhu and lived a simple
life after India got much deserved freedom. Maybe he left this mystery Mr. Bose
for all of us to solve and unite again to get the right answer.
Many
official enquiries were made to confirm about his death. With setting a trend
of disappearance, his death in the plane crash was something the world wasn’t
ready to believe. The committees (Figgess Report, 1946; Shah Nawaz Committee,
1956; Khosla Commission, 1970; Mukherjee Commission 1999-2005) set up to
investigate the plane crash and death came up with different results. The most
controversial has been the last and longest one of them, Mukherjee Commission.
The commission concluded that the oral accounts in favour of plane crash
could not be relied upon and that there was a secret plan to ensure
Bose's safe passage to Russia with the knowledge of Japanese authorities
and Habibur Rahman (his secretary). The commission also
observed that the ashes kept at the Renkoji temple, reported to be
Bose's, were of Ichiro Okura, a Japanese soldier who died of cardiac
arrest.
The
Mukherjee Commission submitted its report to on November 8, 2005. The
report was tabled in the Indian Parliament on May 17, 2006. The Indian
Government rejected the findings of the commission without assigning any
reason. Two of the four top secret files with the Central Government regarding
Netaji’s death are related to Mukherjee Commission. I wonder what information
from this commission has made those files as top secret files!
Things
would have been simpler and easier to believe if the Indian Government wouldn’t
have acted in a mysterious way about this issue. Well, they are still walking
on the same path in spite of many questions raised by the West Bengal
government, Netaji’s family and the curious public. In 2015, the WB government
declassified 64 files related to Netaji. The files raise question over his
death in lanec crash in 1945 in Taipei, talk about the surveillance his family
was put under even after his death, mentions that communication between his
wife and daughter with his family after his rumoured death amongst other
issues. But still there lay 135 files related to Netaji which are yet to be
declassified.
The
documents purportedly suggest that in 1948-49, British and American
intelligence agencies believed that Bose was alive and instrumental in a number
of communist uprisings in Southeast Asia. Another letter, written by the
Information and Broadcasting Ministry to Netaji’s nephew Amiya Nath Bose in
1948, also suggests the same thing, said sources.
What
I feel is that he did hoax the plane crash. His death before the freedom of
India is something which is hard to believe. This is not my gut talking, this
is an analysis of what has been happening since 23 January, 1945 talking. This
is a curious Indian wanting to know what’s in the top secret files with the
Government which are not out for public knowledge. I think his death was a
fabricated stunt and he lived on supporting India from outside like he was
doing in when he escaped from India. I think there’s a greater and bigger
mystery involved that’s why the Indian Government is worried about their
relations with some of the foreign countries. But what I cannot understand is
why he never came out of hiding if he was alive!
And
the list of questions which arose after his death is beyond human logic.
Did
he attend Gandhi’s and Nehru’s cremation ceremonies? Did he actually parade in
China with the Chinese Red Army? Did his brother lie when he said Netaji would
return in March? Did Nehru was a part of this world-famous controversy for
real? Was Nehru a part of snooping that went on for Netaji’s family even after
a decade of his much rumoured death? Was the baba who died in Faizabad in
reality was Netaji? Would a fearless man hide his identity after independence?
So
on the 119th birthday anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, I
decide to rise above the theories and half knowledge about his much rumoured
death and the secret life he led on after the plane crash (if the former wasn’t
true). He was a great man who didn’t fear authority and took many vigorous
steps for the free India, we live in today. I thank him for being a part of the
freedom which ws taken away from British Raj, not given by them.
Happy
Birthday Netaji. You were a true hero and you will forever live in our memories
as the badass patriot who you were.
Ankita Kureel
PGP MarComm 2015-16
ankita.kureel@northpointindia.com
