M A I N   N E W S

Netaji survived ’45 crash, claims nephew
Sanjay Sharma
Tribune News Service

Netaji's nephew Subrata Bose speaks at a seminar in Chandigarh on Sunday.

Chandigarh, July 20
Fresh evidence placed before the Mukherjee Commission inquiring into the disappearance of Netaji Subbhas Chandra Bose indicate he survived the August 18, 1945 air crash at Taihoku airport in Taiwan.

Research scholar Dr Ms Purabi Roy while working on "History of Soviet Union between 1901 and 1947" came across references to Netaji being alive after the crash that is believed to have killed him, Netaji's nephew Subrata Bose, a deponent before the commission, told The Tribune here today.

Mr Bose also said the UK Cabinet in December, 1946 on its agenda had a question as to what to do with Subhash Chandra Bose. "Bring him to India and court martial him; leave him or leave him where he is," the agenda which has come to the notice of the commission revealed. It indicated that he might have been alive after the crash, Mr Bose said talking to The Tribune on the sidelines of a seminar "Reconstructing India in Netaji's way and What happened to Netaji" held here today.

He said after these evidences came to light, the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government started holding back documents related to Netaji terming them as "classified" and detrimental to relations with "friendly countries."

Netaji's nephew said the one-man inquiry commission headed by a retired Supreme Court judge Justice Manoj Kumar Mukherjee would meet the fate of earlier Shahnavaz Khan and Khosla commissions on the issue if the Government of India itself did not provide relevant information.

He said the inquiry could not be completed if the relevant information was not provided by Russia, Japan, Britain and other countries and if the Government of India itself did not provide the information how could it ask other countries to share the information.

Mr Bose expressed surprise that the NDA government was failing to honour the commitment of "full cooperation" given by none less than Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishan Advani before setting up the Mukherjee Commission.

Giving an example of non-cooperation of foreign governments also, he said during the visit of the commission to Renkoji temple near Tokyo, where the ashes of Netaji are kept, the head priest refused to open the container on the pretext that the carpenter was not available.

Mr Subrata Bose said when Dr Ms Purabi Roy stumbled upon Netaji reaching Russia after the crash, the documents available in the archives indicated that there was a list of classified information of military intelligence of the erstwhile Soviet Union and the KGB.

He said when the commission visited the UK, it was not allowed to have access to documents of military intelligence on the ground they could only be made available by 2020.

Mr Bose said there were strong indications that Netaji reached Russia from Taihobu airport where he was to be shown dead as per a plot hatched by the Japanese and Netaji himself. Japan later said what had been planned had "unfortunately actually happened."