Netaji: The missing links

A frail scholar’s single-handed effort in India is slowly pushing many to demand an answer to one of the nation’s biggest mysteries: Where did Subhas Chandra Bose disappear?

Anuj Dhar is painstakingly asking everyone to demand de-classification of 41 files on the Cambridge-educated freedom fighter who rejected Mahatma Gandhi's pacifism in favour of violent revolution. The files are holed up in a secret safe in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO).

Dhar’s efforts have not yet borne fruit, with the critics comparing his demand to that of medieval boats that sailed only with a push from the wind, but sank in still waters. But Dhar, who works more than 12 hours a day on his mission, is confident of a hungry tide that will — eventually — push the boat to its destination.

The fate of one of India’s finest patriots — a traitor in the eyes of the British for collaborating with the Japanese and Germans in WW II — remains a mystery after investigations into his disappearance contradicted the official version that claimed Bose died in a plane crash in Taihoku airport in Taiwan on August 18, 1945. There are some who also believe Bose came back to India as a Hindu monk and there are others who say that he was kept in solitary confinement in Siberia.

Dhar claims “the nation has a right to know” what happened to Bose. He hopes with increased demand, there could be an eventual consensus among all political parties to de-classify the files, including one on an abortive 1992 move to award the patriot Bharat Ratna, India’s highest civilian honour.

Bose remains an iconic figure in India, especially in West Bengal. His statue, in military uniform, stands in Parliament along with two of India's most revered leaders — Mahatma Gandhi, and Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s first PM.

Out of the 41 classified files, the PMO has kept five as “top secret”. Among these is a file on the funeral of Bose’s “widow” in Germany in 1996 classified as “Confidential” and another file about Bose’s “widow” and daughter classified as “Top Secret”. A file on the abortive bid to confer Bharat Ratna is stamped “Secret”. Also classified as “Secret” is a file on “disposal of properties of INA in Far East” and a file on transfer of “his ashes” to India, classified as “Top Secret”. Interestingly, there is a secret file relating to the construction of an INA memorial in the Indian Capital as suggested by Bhupinder Hooda, then Haryana Chief Minister. The home ministry has close to 70,000 pages concerning Netaji's fate. But it is locked away, and not meant for the masses. Across all ministries, there are a little over 100 files on Bose.

Dhar's biggest adversaries are the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leads the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the Centre and Trinamool Congress (TMC) that rules Bengal. 

The BJP, which described Bose as a patriot who took a heroic stance against imperialism, had promised to de-classify the files if it came to power. But, now, it seems that it has gone back on that promise. 

The TMC, which could have bolstered the demand in a city where Bose studied, lived, worked and escaped, is strangely silent. Across schools and colleges in Bengal, history books still have the old account: that Bose died in the air crash and his ashes are kept at a temple in Japan. A demand by renowned filmmaker, Dibakar Banerjee, for declassifying the Netaji files, has sunk without a trace. 

And every time there is a reference to Bose in some corner of India or the world, Dhar's hopes are kindled. He was happy that PM Narendra Modi met Saichiro Misumi, a 99-year-old Japanese associate of Bose, in Tokyo last September, the MEA even describing it as a “poignant moment”. There was hope when Modi, during the Lok Sabha campaign in May, shared stage with Col Nizamuddin, a 114-year-old former INA officer, and even touched the war veteran's feet.

But now, the PMO has made it clear that it does not have the powers to open the files. In response to two RTI applications, the PMO said the Prime Minister has no power to declassify files whose disclosure would prejudicially affect relations with foreign countries.

When under house arrest by the British in Kolkata, Bose escaped in 1941 to seek international support for his efforts to free India and formed INA with Japanese help. Little has been known about his whereabouts ever since he went missing in 1945. The Mukherjee Commission in 2006 concluded Bose did not die in an air crash and his ashes were not in Renkoji Buddhist temple in Tokyo. The ashes, often visited by Indian leaders on visits to Tokyo, are those of Ichiro Okura, a Japanese officer in the Taiwanese puppet army, who died of "heart failure".

But what Dhar has managed is indeed stupendous. He, under the US Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), filed an application along with non-resident Indian, Abhishek Bose, and Chandra Kumar Bose, Netaji's grandnephew, last year. It forced the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to reveal in January last year, documents — filed way back in 1964 — that clearly cast doubts on the reported death of Bose. Among them was a note in which a confirmation of Bose’s death has been sought from the Secretary of State in Washington DC and it read: “The hold which Bose had over the Indian imagination was tremendous and that if he should return to this country, trouble would result.” The CIA further said it was informed by a highly placed source in November 1950 that Bose was in Siberia, waiting for a comeback. In February 1964, the CIA was even told about the "possible return" of Subhas Bose. 

The ball is now squarely in Narendra Modi's court, hopefully the PM will clear the air on Netaji's fate.

The writer is the India Editor for Central European News