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Journalism of Courage
Subhas Chandra Bose8217;s adrift legatees have chanced upon a brainwave. Drawing clear inspiration from their founder, Forward Bloc leaders appear to be saying, give us blood and we will attain freedom from irrelevance. In a bizarre move to assert its political credentials and to stop Netaji from being co-opted by others, the Bloc has undertaken an ambitious programme. To mark his 108th birth anniversary on January 23 they are striving for two lakh signatures for a socio-political pledge 8212; in blood. In addition, Bloc leaders have won permission from the Union government for an inquiry panel to visit Bangkok and Taipei to delve into the circumstances of Bose8217;s 8220;disappearance8221;.
Demands for further investigations into that 8220;disappearance8221; and attempts to own Bose highlight the leader8217;s hold over the Indian imagination. Yet they also betray reluctance to alter the Netaji myth to accommodate the specifics of his life. Certainly, Bose is critical to a proper understanding of the making of independent India. He was not only part of a pantheon of leaders placed at a transformative junction of history in the 8217;30s and 8217;40s. He was also a man who by the force of his charisma and the strength of his intellect compelled a still unfree India to engage with critical issues 8212; of socialism as a modernising agent in a feudal society, of imperfect choices when colonial loyalties conflict with strategies for swifter independence. His martyrhood by early disappearance 8212; by many accounts, in a plane crash near Taipei in August 1945 8212; in some ways, however, insulated him from critical appraisal. And his penchant for dissent has over time rendered him depoliticised to such an extent that groups arrayed across the ideological spectrum claim him as their own. The BJP hails him for his forceful nationalism, the Left for his opposition to feudalism and capitalism, the Congress for his long stint in the party.
