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Journalism of Courage
Seven years after it was tasked to solve the mystery of the disappearance of Netaji Subash Chandra Bose, the Justice M K Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry has concluded that he is dead but that he didn’t die in a plane crash in Taipei in August, 1945 and that the ashes at the Renkoji temple in Tokyo are not his.
Justice Mukherjee’s findings, which were rejected by the Government as it tabled the Commission’s report in Lok Sabha today, are contrary to the findings of two earlier committees—the Shahnawaz Khan Committee (1956) and G D Khosla Committee (1970)—which concluded that Bose perished in the Taipei crash and his ashes were kept at the Renkoji temple.
But in Kolkata, Justice Mukherjee stood by his report: “I am happy with whatever I have done. Maybe the present Government finds it difficult to accept what I have said and wants to stick to the earlier Commissions’ findings.”
The story of the crash, Mukherjee said, was “cooked up” to facilitate the flight of Netaji and his companion (Col Habibur Rehman). “The Japanese government knew about it. The Government of India suppressed a report by the Taiwanese government way back in 1956. That report also said Bose did not die in the Taihoku (Taipei) crash. I managed to get this report from the British Intelligence,” he said.
Making the average lifespan of an Indian the basis, the Mukherjee Commission concluded that Bose “is dead” but “he did not not die in the plane crash, as alleged”. The ashes at the Tokyo temple, the Commission said, “cannot but be of Ichiro Okura”, a Taiwan Government Army member who “died of heart failure on August 19, 1945 in the Army Hospital.”
The Commission also said that in the absence of any clinching evidence to prove that “Bhagwanji-Gumnami Baba was Netaji, the question whether he died in Faizabad (in Uttar Pradesh) on September 16, 1985 as testified by some of the witnesses, need not be answered”.Though the Government rejected the report, most leaders of the Forward Bloc, the party Bose founded in 1939, said they believe that Bose is dead.
“I believe that Bose is dead but since he is the founder of the Forward Bloc, it is our duty to find out how and where he died,” Subrata Bose, Forward Bloc MP, told The Indian Express.
Bose’s belief stems from the fact that his father (Netaji’s elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose) told him in 1949 that Netaji did not die in the plane crash. “I was 17 years old. I remember what Sarat Chandra Bose said. My uncle Suresh Chandra Bose gave a dissenting note in the Shahnawaz Khan Committee Report which concluded that Bose died in a plane crash in 1945. Mukherjee’s report is bang on target,” said Bose.
Ashok Ghosh, the party’s state secretary, too does not believe that Bose is alive. “Bose’s death will always remain a mystery. The Centre does have certain confidential files which it has not opened to any of the three Commissions of Inquiry.”
“Justice Mukherjee went where nobody did along with our party MP and researcher Purabi Roy and has come up with what we knew all along (that Bose didn’t die in 1945). So where did Bose go and what was the conspiracy behind his disappearance? That’s what the Forward Bloc and the nation needs to know,” said Ghosh.
He and FB MPs want an open discussion in Parliament. Why is Bose’s death the one-point agenda of FB’s three Lok Sabha and two Rajya Sabha members? “That is because we believe that Netaji’s brand of socialism works even 50 years after Independence. We are all admirers of Netaji. So we need to know the truth about his death,” said Ghosh.
A myth crashes…
The key findings of Justice MK Mukherjee panel:
• Netaji is dead
• But he didn’t die in a plane crash in Taipei in August, 1945
• The ashes at Tokyo’s Renkoji temple are not his
• The story of the crash was cooked up to help Netaji escape
• The Japanese and Taiwanese government knew about the ploy
• GOI suppressed a report by the Taiwanese government in 1956
• No evidence to prove that Bhagwanji-Gumnami Baba was Netaji
• The question if he died in Faizabad in 1985 is irrelevant
