Did Netaji really die in plane crash?
Response
By Satyendra P. Shukla

IT is for the third time that the Government of India has instituted an inquiry committee to investigate the disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose (Saturday Plus, September 18). Two earlier inquiry reports failed to satisfy the curiosity of the people, not only because of the dissenting note given by a member of one of the committees, but also because there were a number of missing links for which the committees concerned had failed to find any answers, i.e. where did the three bags full of gold and jewellery, belonging to the Azad Hind Bank, which Netaji had taken with himself while moving out of Bangkok to Tokyo, go after the plane crash.

However, I have different reasons to disagree with the findings of both the inquiry committee reports, because, if I choose to agree with them, I will have to disbelieve my own ears, as also the stories of some others, who met me later and gave their versions of Netaji’s disappearance.

I still remember the day, it was perhaps August 11 or 12, 1945, two or three days after the USA bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki leading to the surrender by Japan and end of World War II. Around 11.30 p.m. I was listening to the Shonan radio broadcasts, when the news-reader announced rather grimly, that Netaji had left Bangkok for Tokyo following the latest developments on the eastern theatre of war. On reaching Tokyo, he contacted the Russian commander of the area, across the sea, at Dairen, port town. Shonan was the name given to Singapore by the Japanese after its occupation and was supposed to be under the control of the INA.

The next morning I read in the paper about the collapse of the Japanese war machine and gains of the Allies on all theatres of war there was no news about Netaji’s flight. At night, I tried to tune into Shonan radio, but could not. Instead the Singapore radio was announcing the Allies gains, on the same wave-length.

Perhaps three or four days after the Shonan broadcast on August 14 or 15, the BBC announced the death of Subhas Chandra Bose in a plane crash on his way to Tokyo from Bangkok at Formosa’s Taihaku airport. I simply did not believe this news. How could one do so after hearing the Shonan broadcast? But, the news spread like wild-fire all over the country and the whole nation was plunged into grief. I thought it was a canard spread by the British to demoralise the freedom fighters.

The BBC news was broadcast in its evening bulletin. The next day, different people and parties expressed their disbelief at the news. Mahatma Gandhi issued a statement saying that he did not believe that Netaji was dead. Many other national leaders, including Netaji’s elder brother late Sarat Chandra Bose, issued similar statements. Despite all this, the pall of gloom that hung over the nation did not lift. Nobody dared to organise a meeting or pass a resolution to condole his death. Just then I wrote a letter to the Editor of Amrita Bazar Patrika, which had recently shifted to Allahabad from Calcutta, saying that I believe that Netaji did not die in the plane crash. It was published perhaps in the last week of August or by mid-September 1945.

A month or two later, one evening while entering my room, I found a slip, signed illegally, urging me to meet the signatory at a small hotel, Taj, in Seo Bazar Agra. Next evening I went to the place and met a South Indian gentleman perhaps in his 40s. He introduced himself as Ramachandran, a Lt. Col. of INA. He said he was the bodyguard of Netaji, during Netaji’s voyage from Germany to Japan. He also told me that he was on a mission to meet various activists of student and youth organisations to convey to them the news that Netaji was alive and would return soon. He also disclosed that the news of Netaji’s death was given out under a well thought-out plan with the acquiescence of Japanese authorities. It was not, in fact, a British canard, as I believed.

By this time, a statement of Col. Habib-ur-Rahman of INA’s almost certifying the death report had also come. Therefore, I confronted Ramachandran with it and asked him what he had to say about it. He said it was part of a strategy chalked-out at the highest level. Then I asked him, how one could disbelieve Habib when he said that he had burnt his hands while rescuing Netaji from the burning inferno at the Formosan airport after the plane crash. At this he laughed heartily and said: "Would you believe me , if I say that Habib is dead and I burnt my hands in rescuing him?" I said: "How could that be? He is very much alive." But, before I could finish my sentence, he had already unbuttoned the sleeves of his shirt and bared both his hands, which were badly burnt and said: "I was going to convey to you that Habib’s burnt hands are no guarantee of the truth of what he stated. In army service burnt hands are quite common."

I revealed to him the information that I had received from the Shonan radio broadcast. He corroborated it and also confirmed that Netaji had reached Russia. As I took leave, he asked me to spread the message of Netaji’s well-being and tell the youth to remain prepared to welcome him as and when he appeared in India.

Since then, despite the reports of two inquiry committees on Netaji’s death, the periodic trickle of news about Netaji being alive has persisted. I had also been getting reports from various reliable sources that Netaji was in Russia.

There was a strong possibility that the USSR had accorded him political asylum.

Late A.K. Gupta, then Special Correspondent of the Anand Bazar Patrika at Delhi told me that someone informed him at Moscow, that Netaji was alive. The man disappeared soon after. Similarly he told me about an incident at Tashkent before he emplaned for India. He said, when he was just about to board the plane, a man in tatters came running to him and whispered: "Indian? Indian? Netaji alive and saying this disappeared in the fog."

The writer and inveterate traveller Dr Satya Narain Sinha, claimed that during his travels, he had collected information about the whereabouts of Netaji, somewhere on the northern border of India across the mountains. Sinha had also written that he (Netaji) might enter India any time in disguise since he was on the wanted list of the Interpol as an international war criminal.

By and large, even the most sanguine believers in his strength and stamina for living, have now come to believe that he is no more on this earth as, by now, he would be too old physically to be alive, especially under adverse circumstances, he had to face.

About 3-4 years ago, I had come across an article by the late Dharmendra Gaur. He claimed that he worked as an officer in the British military intelligence during the Second World-War and was posted in the eastern sector which included NEFA and Burma. He wrote that British military intelligence declassified after the expiry of the statutory 50-year ban, showed that British government did not believe in the alleged death of Netaji in the plane crash. He also wrote that the truth about Netaji was known to both Mountbatten and Nehru and the Shahnawaz Enquiry Committee report was a ploy to hoodwink people.

Thus, even if Netaji is no more, the mystery of his disappearance persists.

It is therefore necessary for the Government of India to activate the third enquiry committee with wider terms of reference to examine the issue with latest data available on the subject.