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The Friends of India Society International and the Bengali Association of Greater Chicago held a seminar Oct. 31 to discuss journalist and author Anuj Dhar’s own investigation surrounding the death of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, and called upon the Indian government to declassify the files relating to Netaji as promised by Prime Minister Narendra Modi recently.
Dhar, who addressed the seminar that was attended by some 100 eminent community members as well journalists, said that there was no air crash that for years had been propagated to establish the theory that Netaji died in an air crash in August 1945. He claimed that Bose actually died in India in the 1980s.
Dhar has published several books on the death of Netaji and claims that the so-called death of Netaji due to air crash has been the biggest cover-up by the Congress party and the government. He is also the founder-trustee of New Delhi-based nonprofit Mission Netaji.
Modi declared Oct. 4 that the government would declassify files relating to Netaji beginning Jan. 23, coinciding with his Netaji’s birthday.
Dhar said he hopes that with Modi’s support it would hopefully be possible to know the truth about what happened to “India’s greatest freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose, and restore his place in India history with the Gandhis and the Nehrus of the world.”
According to the Indian government the death Netaji purportedly died from third-degree burns on August 18, 1945 after his overloaded Japanese plane crashed in Japanese-occupied Formosa which is now Taiwan. The Indian government has, since independence, instituted three commissions of inquiry, two of which confirmed the death in the plane crash but the third stated that Bose faked his own death. The government rejected this report without citing any reasons.
The circumstances surrounding his death remained a mystery not just to his family but to all Indian citizens for more than 60 years.
“ It is extremely important these documents are declassified leave aside that Netaji was one of the greatest leaders of our time and deserves his rightful place and Indian history, but even more important is that democracy must achieve transparency and without the fair declassification the country will never know what happened. Sridhar Damle from Chicago Friends of India Society, said. “It is our demand that these documents are released. The world needs to know what has happened to this great army leader and correct history.”
Currently there are three theories or “conspiracy” theories surrounding his death. First, that Netaji died in a plane crash en route to Japan; however there is ample evidence including reports from Taiwanese government that no plane crash occurred at the time when Netaji allegedly died. In addition, scientific and medical tests have revealed that the bones currently in Tokyo’s Renkoji Temple, which are purported to belong to Netaji, are not his and have been identified as those belonging to a person of Japanese descent.
A second conspiracy theory was that Netaji was imprisoned in Russia and killed by Stalin, however there is not even one iota of evidence that he indeed died in Russia and surprisingly, Dhar said, the Indian government has never requested for any assistance from the Russians to resolve this matter despite the long-standing cooperation between the two nations.
Besides, after his death, there have been several reports that American and British journalists and commanders in Russia, Southeast Asia and Paris sighted Netaji between 1947 and 1965.
The third theory is that Netaji was alive long after his proclaimed death, had traveled back to India from Russia and was living as an ascetic in various parts of India.
Certainly, Dhar said, the timing of the declassification decision cannot be overlooked as Modi is seeking re-election and facing dissent and opposition from many constituents for his strong conservative stance on certain issues. “Regardless of what the motivations are for the declassification movement, and the historical significance of what the documents might entail, there seems to be an overwhelming sentiment among Indians and Indian expatriates that transparency is the mainstay of a democratic nation and that it must be achieved at any means,” Dhar said. “We hope that Prime Minister Modi will listen to their plea.”
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