Kolkata, Aug 17 (IANS) Did Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose
die of third-degree burns on August 18, 1945, after his plane crashed
in Formosa (now Taiwan) or did he survive and escape to Siberia? Or was
the "'crash"'a mere hoax to help him flee to safety? The questions have
been haunting, agitating and engaging Indians, in particular Bengalis,
for 70 years, but the mystery endures even today.
A section of
Netaji's descendants, including his daughter Anita Pfaff, as also some
Indian National Army (INA) veterans, hold that the revolutionary leader
perished in the accident and his ashes have been interred at Tokyo's
Renkoji temple.
But a large number of Netaji's admirers, researchers and family members don't buy the theory.
During
her visit to Kolkata in 2013, Pfaff said she was convinced that he died
when the Mitsubishi Ki-21 Japanese heavy bomber Netaji boarded at
Saigon with his close aide Col. Habibur Rahman on August 17, 1945,
purportedly to shift base to the erstwhile Soviet Union and continue his
fight for India's independence, crashed in Japanese-occupied Formosa.
"It
would be the perfect homecoming for him if the ashes are brought to
India. His ashes should be immersed in the river Ganges," Pfaff had
said.
Netaji's grand nephew and Harvard University professor
Sugata Bose is another big votary of the crash theory and has detailed
his viewpoint in his book 'His Majesty's Opponent'. Bose bases his
arguments on "overwhelming evidence", citing the testimony of six of the
seven survivors of the crash as also that of doctors and paramedics who
treated Netaji at the Taipei Military Hospital.
The Indian
government's three attempts to unravel the mystery by constituting probe
panels - Shah Nawaz Khan Committee (1956), G D Khosla Committee (1970)
and the Justice M K Mukehrjee Commission which submitted its report in
2006 - have only fuelled the debate.
While the first two panels
concluded Bose perished in the Taipei crash, the Mukherjee Commission
debunked the theory. The government however debunked the Mukherjee
Commission's findings.
Researcher and author Anuj Dhar stands by the Mukherjee Commission.
"Both
to the Mukherjee Commission as well as in letters written to me, the
Taiwan authorities have stated that according to their records, no plane
crash occurred on Aug 18, 1945," Dhar told IANS.
"There are many
secret files that can prove the air crash theory was planted by the
Japanese and Netaji to facilitate his escape to Russia."
Lakshmi Sahgal, nee Swaminathan, who led the all-woman Rani Jhansi Regiment of the INA, supported the crash theory.
She
claimed in an interview in 2005 that the Japanese had destroyed all
records before their surrender after losing the second World War.
"As
far as the Taiwan government's denial of any air crash during that
period on its soil is concerned, all I can say is that the Japanese had
destroyed all records. They did not want one bit of paper to fall into
the hands of the Allied forces that could prove as evidence for wartime
crimes.," Sahgal had said.
The answer to the enigma, many believe, lies hidden in scores of secret government files.
Besides
Dhar and his Mission Netaji, a host of Netaji's descendants have been
demanding publication of over 100 such files claimed to be in possession
of various departments of the central government including the Prime
Minister's Office (PMO) and 64 classified documents with the West Bengal
government.
"All information on record - from Indian, Japanese,
British and Taiwanese sources - is unambiguous that the man who died in
the Nanmon military hospital in Taihoku (Taipei) in August 1945 was a
Japanese soldier named Ichiro Okura," said Dhar.
Netaji's grand-nephew Chandra Kumar Bose concurred.
"There
are several secret Japanese government dossiers that are lying with the
Indian government where Okura has been named. Okura's name appears in
the official records accessed by various authorities," Chandra Kumar
told IANS.
Col. Rahman, a survivor of the alleged crash,
recounting the last hours of Netaji Bose before the Shah Nawaz panel,
affirmed he died at a hospital after the crash. But Dhar and Chandra
Kumar claim Col. Rahman was only following Netaji's orders.
"Colonel
Rahman's interrogation reports, declassified in 1997, clearly state
that he had not told the truth. In fact, in close quarters including the
Bose family, he had confided that he did so following Netaji's orders,"
said Dhar.
Netaji's elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose had questioned Col. Rahman and rejected his crash theory.
"Sarat
Chandra Bose rejected Col. Rahman's crash theory after questioning for
hours," Chandra Kumar said, quoting his father and Sarat Bose's son
Amiya Nath.
Besides, Sarat Bose had also come across American
intelligence reports saying Netaji safely reached Manchuria in China
bordering the USSR.
"Justice Radha Binode Pal of the
International Military Tribunal for the Far East had told Sarat Bose
about American intelligence report that was shown to him by an American
judge at the tribunal. The report clearly stated that Netaji safely
reached Manchuria on August 18, 1945," Chandra Kumar maintained.
(Anurag Dey can be contactedat [email protected] )
