29

Jan

 BJP thy game is Sustaining myths and creating controversies

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A close-up of a person with glasses Description automatically generatedOn 23 January, the county celebrated the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Leader of the Opposition Rahul Gandhi, joined the ranks of political leaders in paying his homage and tributes to the legendary leader but his words created a controversy which was created by the BJP.

It needs to be told to our readers as to what led to the controversy. Rahul Gandhi had put up a photograph of Netaji on social media platform X and had captioned it as “January 23, 1897-August 18, 1945”.

The BJP leaders, who were joined by the Trinamool Congress leader, took strong exception to the post asking Gandhi to “correct it”. “The post of Rahul Gandhi is wrong and is not acceptable. We are celebrating the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. We don’t know whether the theory regarding the death of Netaji in the air crash is true”, Trinamool Congress leader Kunal Ghosh said.

 

Column at a Glance
On January 23, the birth anniversary of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was celebrated, but a social media post by Rahul Gandhi sparked controversy. Gandhi's post, which included a photograph of Bose and the caption "January 23, 1897-August 18, 1945," was criticized by BJP and Trinamool Congress leaders, who demanded a correction and an apology for allegedly misrepresenting Bose's death.
Wednesday Wisdom
By Satish Misra
The ongoing debate about Bose's death in an air crash on August 18, 1945, has been fueled by various political interests, as noted by his daughter, Anita Bose Pfaff. She highlighted that multiple investigations have concluded his death, yet speculations persist, often for political gain. Despite the availability of documents supporting the official narrative, the controversy remains alive, with calls for Bose's remains to be returned to India, reflecting the enduring legacy and emotional connection to the leader.

 

In the same vein, West Bengal BJP chief Sukanta Majumdar also targeted the Leader of the Opposition saying “I strongly protest the claim that Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose died on 18th August 1945, as stated in a post by @Rahul Gandhi. I also demand that Mr. Gandhi apologies within 24 hours for showing disrespect to Netaji”.

I have been closely following Netaji’s story for over four decades from the time that I was doing Ph D at the Humboldt University in Berlin in the then Communist East Germany called German Democratic Republic. Along with my studies, I was also writing for Indian media including Hindi and English magazines.

A cover story, researched and written jointly with another journalist friend Ram Naryan Yadav who was then working at the Radio Berlin International. The article, running into eight pages with photographs and illustrations titled ‘Kya Subhas ko Nazion Ne Dhoka Diya’ (Did Nazis betray Subhash), was published in a Hindi weekly ‘Dharmyug’ on 25 January 1978.

Publication of our piece resulted in my expulsion from East Germany whose Communist government took strong objection to the article. Since then I have been closely following Netaji’s life story.  

In my frank view, the controversy about his death in an air crash on 18 August 1945 is being sustained deliberately for milking it for political objectives. While I am not alone in claiming that Netaji’s death controversy is being kept alive by certain vested interests, even great leader’s daughter Anit Bose Pfaff holds the same view. Some excerpts from her article in the Indian Express on 24 January this year will establish beyond any doubt that my claim is credible and how vested interests are trying to keep the controversy alive.

“Not surprisingly, various speculations about what might have happened to him on and after August 18, 1945, made the rounds. Over time the results of the earlier investigations became declassified and further inquiry commissions were set up, three alone — in 1956, 1979 and 1999 — by the Indian government. Ten reports concluded that Netaji died during the night of August 18, following a plane crash in Taipei.

Only the last Indian inquiry by the Justice Mukherjee Commission arrived at inconclusive results. But this report, for strange reasons, contains many mistakes, inconsistencies and incorrect statements”, Netaji’s only daughter Anita said in her piece on the opinion pages of the English daily.

Here it must be mentioned that the Mukherjee Commission was set up by the BJP government of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in 1999. The Commission worked for about six years till the new government was elected to power in 2004. The Congress led UPA government of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh demanded the submission of a report. Eventually, the new government did not accept the report. 

“When asked about the errors in a personal conversation with members of Netaji’s family, Justice Mukherjee admitted the fact but was not willing to talk about it. We must, therefore, accept the fact of Netaji’s death, despite a variety of fantastic speculations of what “might or could have happened”. While for some these speculations may be motivated by genuine affection for an iconic leader, let us not forget that an author can also make a lot of money by publishing stories of mysterious occurrences! And mysteries may offer more entertaining reading than dry reports or academic treatises on the subject”, she goes on to state exposing machinations of interested persons, group and parties.

“Meanwhile, after all or almost all relevant documents about Netaji’s death have been available to the interested public for several years, the evidence in support of the fact and the date of his death is overwhelming. When the first government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi declassified the last Indian documents pertaining to Netaji and his family and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee did the same in Bengal, persons in doubt, who had hoped that something might be found in those documents, had to accept that no conspiracy had been hushed up”, underlined Bose Pfaff. 

Deeply pained at the failure of the Indian government to bring back Netaji’s remains to the country, she pointed out that “almost 80 years later, and more than 77 years after India became independent, Netaji’s remains are still honoured at Renkoji Temple. With Rev Mochizuki, the third generation of head priests exercises this function.”

“Netaji was deeply devoted to his motherland and his compatriots. He was willing to sacrifice everything to see India free. Since this was not achieved during his lifetime, he deserves to be allowed to return to his country at least posthumously”, she concluded her article pouring her emotions out. 

Whether our claim is right or they who wish to keep the controversy going depends on you as the issue is in people’s court.

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