The Nehru-Netaji tussle
Speaking generally
By Canchal Sarkar

ON the eve of retiring from the Election Commission, GVG Krishnamoorthy had made a striking remark: "Those who should be in jail are in the Lok Sabha"! He has contrasted the leadership of India before independence and now. Some of the tallest figures are forgotten. One such is Subhas Chandra Bose.

Bose’s family, meaning his brothers and sisters, nephews and nieces, has long been convinced that Nehru deliberately underplayed the story of the INA and made little effort to trace the last days of Bose when he was thought to be in erstwhile Soviet Union. There was a letter written byNehru to Stalin which is recorded in the list of Nehru’s correspondence but the copy does not exist in the file.

The imperfect sympathy between the two goes back to the late 20s and the 30s. In A Bunch of Old Letters written to and by Nehru there is a remarkably long letter from Bose criticising Nehru for his ‘lack of principles’ and his ‘waywardness’, and saying that at one stage Bose wanted to look upon him as an elder brother. Nehru’s reply, rather unsatisfactory, was in substance, I am what I am’.

The biggest breakdown in their relations came after the Tripuri Congress when Bose was elected President for the second time despite Gandhiji’s opposition. Gandhiji would not let any President function without his approval. The Working Committee had people who owed allegiance to Gandhiji, like Rajendra Prasad, Vallabh Bhai Patel, Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan and Sarojini Naidu (who was later to say, "Subhas, India’s flaming sword, unsheathed for her freedom"). One would have expected Nehru to have sided with Bose. Both were Socialists and modernists, both were disbelievers in gradualism and both had an idea of the direction in which international relations were going. But Nehru dithered, said he was ‘neutral’ stepped out of the limelight for a while and then rejoined the Congress Working Committee. The post-Tripuri episode was one of the sleaziest in Congress history and Rabindranath Tagore wrote a powerful poem condemning the treatment meted out to Bose. Bose was pushed into a corner by his former colleagues and was forced to escape from India and fight for freedom from outside the country.

After the Allied victory in Burma and the alleged death of Bose in an aircrash in Taipei, when the whole of India was in mourning, Nehru did not say very much more than conventional words. One cannot recall any serious speech or writing by Nehru on Netaji Subhas. There was never a move by him to have a statue of Bose placed before the Red Fort in commemoration of Bose’s call ‘Dilli Chalo’.

One doesn’t hear of any effort by Nehru to inquire after Bose’s wife in Vienna and find out if she needed any help.

Nehru did not have the vision to wipe the tears from the eyes of the poor to side with the workers and to fight for the equality of women. Bose did, and though Nehru was indeed very popular in the country Bose was the darling of the masses, of the women, the young, the workers and the revolutionaries.

In Singapore, Bose had conceived a Rani of Jhansi regiment named after Rani Lakshmibai of Jhansi of whom the British General Rose who defeated and killed the Rani in the mid-19th century, said "If there had been 1000 women like Rani Jhansi we could never have conquered India."

The women in the Rani Jhansi regiment were mainly the wives and daughters of Indian plantation workers in Malaya, 60 per cent of them illiterate. Out of them Lakshmi Swaminathan created a dedicated combatant regiment and Bose even then began thinking about the role that women would play in Independent India. He found that while fighting for the emancipation of the country they had also emancipated themselves.

After Independence Lakshmi Swaminathan went to see Nehru and suggested that he ought to find some worthwhile role for these dedicated women. Nehru said he had no use for them. It is worth remembering that India would not accept into its Army the INA soldiers who were supposed to have betrayed their loyalty to the British Crown. Much of this comes from a very interesting paper "Subhas Chandra Bose and the Resolution of the Women’s Question" by Reba Som.

Justice denied

What Mr Krishnamoorthy said is absolutely correct. In today’s India the Bharat Ratnas should go to the Harshad Mehtas and the Sukh Rams. The legal system in India is totally flawed. In the lower courts, like the Tis Hazari in Delhi nothing moves. Bribery induces movement while a laid-back attitude blocks it.

A gardner who worked for many years in our house went home to Aligarh district after retirement when he was implicated in false case by someone who wanted a part of his land. This was about four or five years ago and the case is being heard in Delhi’s Karkadooma court. I say ‘heard’ but there hasn’t yet been a hearing. For all these years the case has been adjourned time and time again. Today it is said the judge hasn’t come because he is ill, tomorrow he is on leave, day after the judge has been transferred and so on and so on. The same will probably happen to Harshad Mehta’s case. At the moment, some say, cases filed in the high court and Supreme Court will come up for hearing in 2002.

Harshad Mehta has what it takes — money — and so his case will go on in the Supreme Court with lawyers who are experts at delaying and obfuscating cases Justice in this country is not for the poor. Look at the amazing case in which the BMW car crushed a number of people in Delhi. What is going on with the witnesses is truly scandalous. The legal process is being turned its head.