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 passge 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.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Death_of_Subhas_Chandra_Bose
http://indianexpress.com/article/india/india-others/netaji-files-the-stories-you-must-read-today/
Ankita Kureel
PGP Marketing Communications 2015-16
ankita.kureel@northpointindia.com