Netaji did not die in air crash, says Amit Mitra
Kingshuk Nag,TNN | Sep 25, 2015, 12.39 AM IST
KOLKATA: State finance and industries minister Amit Mitra, a close relative of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, believes that the patriot did not die in the so called air crash and that he had disappeared into Soviet Union. Mitra bases his beliefs on the conversations he had with his maternal grandfather Suresh Chandra Bose who was the elder brother of Netaji and his father Haridas Mitra who was the head of the INA secret service. This is the first time that Mitra is going public on l'affaire Subhas Bose.
"I was close to my grandfather and remember the tremendous pressure brought on him to declare Subhas Bose dead," Mitra says. Suresh Chandra Bose was a member of the Shah Nawaz Committee and did not agree with the majority view that that Netaji died in the air crash. Finding strong evidence that proved that Netaji could not have died in the crash, Suresh Bose even wrote a dissentient report (in 1956) that stated that Netaji was concealing himself somewhere. Suresh Bose had the dissentient report published at his own cost to make it accessible to maximum number of people. He reported in the dissentient report: "I regret very much to state that hindrances, obstructions and pressure were brought to bear on me by some of the highest government officials with the sole intention of making it impossible to write it (the dissentient report)."
Suresh Bose continued: "With that purpose in view and after I had dissented from the opinion of my colleagues, which was also the opinion of the Prime Minister, not a single piece of paper necessary for writing my report was given to me."
Mitra says that his grandfather began his working life as a judicial magistrate and his legal training ensured that he objectively looked at evidence before coming to any conclusion. The state finance minister also says that his father Haridas Mitra, who was sentenced to death by the British (although the sentence was later commuted), also believed that Netaji had survived the crash, if it took place at all. "His belief was based on the evidence produced by Suresh Bose very carefully," Mitra says.
Suresh Bose wrote in his report that in accordance with a preconceived plan "the Japanese government took Netaji to Manchuria from where he evidently moved into Russian territory." He also wrote: "The British and American Military Intelligence officers, as a result of thorough enquiries made by them soon after the alleged incident, agreed with my finding and they did not believe the announcement made by the Japanese that Netaji was dead."
Incidentally, Suresh Bose — who was five years older than Netaji — was rapped by Jawaharlal Nehru. In a letter dated August 13, 1956 and numbered 414-PMO-56, Nehru wrote to Suresh Bose that he had inquired from Shah Nawaz Khan about the position taken by him (Suresh Bose). "He informed that you had come to Delhi to help in the writing the report but had later suddenly left Delhi without proper intimation. He also gave me a paper also which was signed by you and contained the broad points of agreement, on the basis of which the report was to be written."
Nehru's letter was in response to a letter written to him by Suresh Bose where the latter had alleged that Shah Nawaz Khan was publicly talking about the conclusions of the committee even before the report was finalised and submitted to the government.
But Nehru chose to defend Shah Nawaz Khan saying that Khan had in fact "submitted the report to me many days before that announcement in the Press".
Nehru also added that: "The reference in the press was some kind of an intelligent guess by some reporter or some clerk in the office here. Obviously, Shah Nawaz Khan had nothing to do with it."
Netaji did not die in air crash, says Amit Mitra - The Times of India
Intelligence Bureau didn’t believe Netaji died in 1945
Kingshuk Nag,TNN | Sep 24, 2015, 12.36 AM IST
It is interesting to note that even while IB was trying to trace the whereabouts of Netaji, the Nehru govt in its public utterances kept on insisting that Subhas Bose had died in the air crash.
KOLKATA:
The Intelligence Bureau was sleuthing on relatives of Subhas Chandra Bose because they did not know about his whereabouts but were sure that he had not died in any air crash.
"We knew he was not dead but were not sure where he was. We suspected he was in Soviet Union or Japan," a retired top official of Intelligence Bureau told TOI.
The entire operation was scripted by Bhola Nath Mullick, who was director of IB from 1948-68, the retired official revealed. He further said that Mullick had tremendous hold over the then Prime Minister Jawahar Lal Nehru and was snooping on Netaji relatives to serve the political interests of the latter.
"We were aware that if Netaji made an appearance suddenly he would have given Nehru a run for his position. This was the compelling reason why it was imperative that Subhas Bose's whereabouts be found out. But in the end we could never find out precisely where Netaji was," the official said but refused to be identified. When asked why there was suspicion about Subhas Bose's presence in Japan which had lost the World War II, the former sleuth said that this because he was last heard of officially in Japanese territory in Saigon.
For the purpose of Subhas Bose, Mullick had also taken the help of MI-5, the British intelligence agency. Copies of intelligence gathered by IB were shared with the British agency and sometimes help was taken from MI-5 to develop the leads further, the ex-IB sleuth said. In fact, an MI-5 liaison office was allowed to be operated from New Delhi. Often data about financial help given by USSR to the Communist Party and other agencies was forwarded to MI-5 so that it could be analysed by the British agency. London was interested in what was happening behind the Iron Curtain because of the Cold War that had begun almost immediately after the conclusion of the World War II.
"It was for the yeoman's service rendered to Nehru that Mullick continued in his position for two long decades. Nehru could not think of allowing him to go," the retired sleuth, who later served in Research and Analyses Wing (RAW), said. Incidentally, Mullick belonged to Calcutta, the same city as Subhas Bose but had cultivated an anti-Netaji sentiment because that is what worked in the Nehru regime, the official who now lives in quiet retirement told TOI. The official worked in India's intelligence outfits from the 1950s to the 1990s. Although an IPS officer, he spent his entire career in intelligence.
"We reasoned that Subhas Bose, wherever he was, would try to get in touch with his close relatives like nephews Amiya Nath Bose and Sisir Bose. That is why their correspondence was intercepted and they were snooped upon. Since we averred that Bose could have been in Japan, the IB tried hard to figure out the agenda of Amiya Nath Bose when he visited Japan in 1957," the ex-IB official told TOI. The interception of the mails of Bose family members was organised by the IB office in Calcutta and the head of the office was a top favourite of Mullick.
It is interesting to note that even while IB was trying to trace the whereabouts of Netaji, the Nehru government in its public utterances kept on insisting that Subhas Bose had died in the air crash. Even an official committee under Shah Nawaz Khan was set up in 1956 that insisted that Netaji had died in the air crash. The report was accepted by the government although Netaji's brother Suresh Bose filed a dissent report and insisted that he could not have perished in the crash.
Khan, a former INA officer, had by the time he had been appointed head of the committee become a member of the Nehru establishment and a deputy minister at the Centre. In fact, for starters, the committee was to be a citizen's committee and was slated to be headed by Justice Radha Binode Pal. But the moment the name of Justice Pal came up that the Nehru government swung into action and converted it to an official committee headed by Shah Nawaz Committee. Justice Radha Binode Pal was a member of the international war tribunal for the Far East that tried the Japanese after World War II. The tribunal sentenced many, including the Japanese Prime Minister H Tojo to death. But Justice Pal wrote a dissent report saying that the Japanese were not guilty and that a victor's justice was being meted out to them. This implies that Justice Pal if he were to be the head of the Netaji Inquiry Committee would have done a proper job.
Intelligence Bureau didn’t believe Netaji died in 1945 - The Times of India
Intercepted letter suggests Netaji Bose had been in China
Prithvijit Mitra,TNN | Sep 23, 2015, 02.34 AM IST
Classified files released by the Bengal govt on Netaji Bose have opened up a can of worms.
KOLKATA: Was there evidence to suggest that Netaji had been alive and present at Nanking in China three years after his mysterious disappearance? A letter written to Netaji's nephew Amiya Nath Bose by an information and broadcasting ministry official in 1948 seems to suggest that.
The intercepted letter that never reached Amiya Nath Bose is among the documents stored in the 64 classified files. Chandra Bose, Netaji's grandnephew and Amiya Nath's son, believes the letter might have been written in reply to an enquiry made by his father about the possibility of the leader being in China.
"Various speculations were going around in the late-Forties. There had been reports of Netaji being in China or Soviet Russia. The family was making frantic enquiries for information. From the language of the letter, it appears that my father had asked this gentleman if he had news of Netaji's presence in China. It is also clear that they exchanged correspondence on a regular basis," said Chandra Bose.
Written by Chow Hsiang Kungg, an information and broadcasting ministry employee in New Delhi, the letter was sent to Amiya Bose on March 5, 1948. The letter mentions Publication Division, Information and Broadcasting ministry, Old Secretariat, New Delhi as the sender's address. It had been sent to 1, Woodburn Park and was intercepted at the Elgin Road post-office on March 9, 1948.
The letter starts with an apology to Amiya Bose for a delay in writing to him. It goes on to add that Kungg had scanned Chinese newspapers for reference to Netaji. "I am still believing that he is alive. I could not find out news about Netaji in Chinese newspapers in Nanking," the letter says. Kungg also tells Amiya Nath Bose that he has gone through 'the whole book of Indian pilgrims', ostensibly sent to him by Bose. Kungg also asks Bose for a magazine. It ends with a 'namaskaram'.
"I have no clue about the identity of this gentleman. He might have been a Chinese national working as an interpreter at the information ministry. But it is clear that he had made a quick but desperate search to locate Netaji in Nanking, probably at my father's behest. And the single line about him believing that Netaji was still alive was enough for our intelligence officials to seize the letter. It mentions nothing about his whereabouts, yet it was confiscated," said Bose.
The fate of the letter reveals the intense scrutiny under which Bose family members had been placed, said researcher Anuj Dhar, founder-member, Mission Netaji. "News of his presence in China had started filtering out in 1948. Sarat Bose, Netaji's elder brother, made extensive enquiries. In 1949, he had announced that Netaji was indeed in China. Now, someone like him was not going to speak without proper evidence. If Netaji was in China, then Sarat Bose was the only person he was likely to have got in touch with," said Dhar.
He added that Netaji's presence in China needs to be proved now. "Enough clues have emerged from the 64 police files in Kolkata to support the claim. More evidence is in store in the 130 files lying with the Centre. It is now clear that Netaji had been in China in the late-Forties and early-Fifties," said Dhar.
Intercepted letter suggests Netaji Bose had been in China - The Times of India