Netaji's Mystery: Back from the Dead!

On August 25, 1945 the Indian newspapers broke the news that Netaji had died in a freak plane crash in Taipei (then Taihoku) on August 18th. He had been flying to Tokyo to work out the INA’s surrender when this happened. The British would believe none of it. Viceroy Archibald Wavell noted in his diary on 23 August that “I wonder if the Japanese announcement of Subhas Chandra Bose’s death in a air-crash is true. I suspect it very much, it is just what should be given out if he meant to go underground.…” They dispatched their crack intelligence teams to South East Asia. The findings were bewildering. Netaji was not heading to Tokyo. Months before the world war staggered to a halt, he’d begun planning a new chapter of his war on colonialism. He saw the Cold War coming and reached out to the USSR. The British intelligence got clear information that Subhas was going to Russia at the time of his death. The Japanese had given out a false story about his destination. The survivors of the crash were rounded up and records were captured. The pictured that emerged was of deceit. Eyewitnesses were found to be lying and records appeared as if they had been planted.

Americans chipped in with help. In fact it were they who had the best knowledge. They reached Taiwan in September 1945 and guess what they found. ” … there is no direct evidence that Subhas Chandra Bose was killed in a airplane crash … despite the public statements of the Japanese to that effect.” This, stated the State Department, ten months after Netaji’s “death”. What really happened? “The D.I.B. during his recent visit to London mentioned the receipt … of information to the effect that Subhas Bose was alive in Russia.” This is from a May 1946 report and D.I.B. means, Director of Intelligence Bureau Sir Norman Smith.

The Government of free India knew about the Soviet connection to the Netaji mystery. But all they did was to dilly-dally and state that no inquiry was required. It took ten years of pressure before Prime Minister Nehru agreed to inquire into the matter. This must be hammered: The Government never wanted to probe Netaji’s fate. From Shah Nawaz to Justice Manoj Mukherjee, each time they were forced to. Isn’t it revolting?

Present Perfect

Thank God for Mukherjee Commission! Or shall we thank Mikhail Gorbachev? The fall of the USSR brought the Netaji issue out. In mid-1990s the Russians themselves began saying that Subhas was with them after his death. The matter reached India and the press did rake it up. But Narasimha Rao, with Pranab Mukherjee in tow, would not say a thing. A patriotic fellow moved to Calcutta High Court and the court found the matter to be wide open for inquiry. The Government was chided and told to form a Commission of Inquiry to find out where and how Netaji had died. Mercifully, at the time the verdict came, the NDA was in power.

The inquiry of the Mukherjee Commission in past five years has been path breaking. They have found out, among other things, that the Government of India, at the PMO level, indulged in systematic, unlawful destruction of evidence concerning the Netaji death case. The Government did not want any inquiry in Taiwan, which is precisely what Justice Mukherjee did. The result: the ROC Government ruled out the very occurrence of the crash we had been told over the decades had killed Netaji.

Indian Government also did not want any inquiry in Russia; but that is happening now. Hurrah! After much pulls and pressures, the Mukherjee Commission will visit Russia from September 20 onwards. However, that’s not a good enough development. The Government’s last communication to the Commission suggests that they won’t do anything to help the Commission access security and intelligence related classified papers in Russia, said to be containing definite information about Netaji’s “post-death” life. Time has come for us, the people of India, to demand from our Government something that they should have done decades back on their own: For God’s sake, request the Head of the Russian Government to state facts. This will be our redemption. The people of India must know what happened to their liberator.