Descendants of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose claim they have documentary evidence to prove that the Renkoji temple authorities in Japan have always been willing to hand over the 'ashes' believed to be his, refuting perceptions of roadblocks to their repatriation. They assert that successive Indian governments have shown little interest in retrieving the remains and conducting DNA tests, despite numerous appeals from the family. The article highlights the conflicting reports and controversies surrounding Netaji's death and the ongoing mystery surrounding his remains.
In a statement, Pfaff also noted that the countries Netaji had approached were the only ones willing to support the fight against a common adversary.
Amidst the fanfare over Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh's plans to celebrate Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's birth anniversary in Kolkata on January 23, his daughter Anita Bose-Pfaff has said that the organisation's ideology and the nationalist leader's ideas of secularism and inclusiveness are 'poles apart and do not coincide'.
Amid a controversy over the rejection of West Bengal's tableau for the Republic Day parade themed on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and his Indian National Army, his daughter Anita Bose Pfaff said on Monday the legendary freedom fighter's legacy has often been 'partly exploited' for political reasons.
Russia on Tuesday promised to look into India's request to share any information it has on the seven-decade-old mystery surrounding Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
The Bharatiya Janata Party on Sunday expressed hope that declassification of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose files will reveal the mystery.
The Centre will take a decision on declassification of files held by it related to Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose only after studying its impact on India's relations with other countries, Union Minister M Venkaiah Naidu said in Hyderabad on Saturday.
"For the last one month a rather strange broadcast is being heard over the radio...The broadcast only says 'Neta Subhas Chandra transmitter...wanted to speak," this was written by Netaji's nephew Amiya Nath Bose in a letter to his brother in 1949 as revealed by one of the secret files on the leader declassified by the West Bengal government.
She alleged that certain people in the previous governments had "neglected" the matter as they "never" wanted the mystery to be solved.
A Union Cabinet note said, "There seems to be no scope for doubt that he died in the air crash of 18th August 1945 at Taihoku. Government of India has already accepted this position. There is no evidence whatsoever to the contrary."
Rijiju said India has approached a number of countries to retrieve any documents related to Netaji and they have responded to the requests.
A declassified file contained a letter written by Netaji's nephew Sisir Kumar Bose to his father and Netaji's elder brother Sarat Chandra Bose in 1949 that he had information on Netaji going on the air on a radio channel.
A British website, set up to catalogue the last days of Subhas Chandra Bose, has released the evidence given by a Taiwanese official who claimed to have prepared Netaji's body for cremation after his death in a plane crash in 1945.
The files, digitised and given "preliminary conservation treatment" by the National Archives of India, were released on the birth anniversary of Netaji.
"There are no two opinions between the five witnesses about the fact that Bose's end came on the night of 18 August 1945," www.bosefiles.info said in a statement.
As two recently declassified Intelligence Bureau reveal that the Jawaharlal Nehru government had spied on the family of Subhas Chandra Bose for nearly two decades, one of India's political mysteries takes centrestage. Rediff.com reproduces this 2006 report in which Sumit Bhattacharya reported that a website claims that Netaji, in fact, did not die in an air crash, as was being believed, and that Netaji had escaped to Russia.
