KOLKATA: Peeved with a tweet by a government agency on Netaji’s death, some members of his family have urged Prime Minister Narendra Modi to form a SIT to unravel the mystery surrounding his disappearance over seven decades ago.
Netaji’s grandnephew and West Bengal BJP vice-president, Chandra Kumar Bose said on Monday that the mystery surrounding Netaji’s disappearance in August 1945 is yet to be resolved and any announcement on the freedom fighter’s death should only be made by the prime minister.
Some members of the nationalist leader’s family urged Modi to speak to Japanese premier Shinzo Abe to ensure that files held by that country’s government are declassified and a DNA test of his “remains” preserved at the Renkõ-ji temple in Tokyo is conducted to unravel the mystery of his death.
The Press Information Bureau had on Sunday tweeted, “#PIB remembers the great freedom fighter Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose on his death anniversary. #Netaji #subhashchandrabose.”
Bose told PTI that Netaji’s death is not a trivial matter and an agency like the PIB should not be making any announcement about it. If the mystery of his disappearance or death has been solved it should be announced with respect and not in the manner the PIB did, he added.
“It should be coming from the Prime Minister, not from Amit Shah, Rajnath Singh or anybody else,” he asserted adding that Netaji’s family is waiting to know the truth. “I am confident that Prime Minister Narendra Modi is committed to unravelling the Netaji disappearance mystery. But I am not sure whether the entire government is interested in doing that,” Bose said.
“Nation wants a closure on #NetajiMystery, particularly to stop the false theories spread by persons with vested interest. A tweet by @PIBIndia is not the right approach. Such an announcement must be officially announced by hon’blePM @narendramodi ji based on documentary evidence,” he tweeted. “It’s good to see @PIB_India have deleted their tweet on Netaji’s death,” he said in another tweet.
Bose said during the declassification of Netaji files in 2016 the Centre had failed to get five Netaji files that are in the possession of the Japanese government and that these are “very crucial” to find out the truth. “Now that the #NetajiMystery issue is raging across the nation-for a proper closure please get 3 files kept in Japan, conduct DNA test of remains at Renkõ-ji & release IB files to solve the mystery,” Bose posted on Twitter, tagging the PM, Home Minister Amit Shah, BJP general secretary Kailash Vijayvargiya, PIB Ahmedabad among others.
Bose said that the special investigation team should comprise of Intelligence Bureau and union home department personnel,
Netaji researchers, forensic experts and members of Netaji’s family.
Several reports have claimed that Netaji had on August 18, 1945, boarded a plane from Taihoku Airport in Taiwan, which crashed soon after leading to his death. Bose said there had been three inquiry commissions to unravel the mystery of Netaji’s death. Two of them – the Shah Nawaz Commission (1956) and Khosla Commission (1970) said that Bose died in an air crash. The third one – the Mukherjee Commission (1999) had said he did not die in it. “The divergent views must be looked into,” he added.
Sugata Bose, another grandnephew of Netaji, and his mother Krishna Bose are of the opinion that Netaji died in the air crash. The All India Forward Bloc (AIFB), the party formed by Netaji in 1939 after quitting Congress, feels the government should immediately take up diplomatic efforts to ensure that files held by governments of different nations are declassified. AIFB general secretary Debabrata Biswas on Monday too demanded the formation of a SIT by the Centre to probe the mystery behind Netaji’s disappearance.
The Narendra Modi government had on September 1, 2016 declassified investigative reports of the Japanese government, which concluded that Bose died in a plane crash in Taiwan. Reports have also suggested that his remains are preserved at Renkõ-ji temple in Tokyo. Many, however, continue to believe that Netaji survived the plane crash and lived in hiding. The Manmohan Singh government in 2006 had accepted that ashes in Renkõ-ji Temple in Japan were those of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Netaji’s daughter Anita Bose-Pfaff had last year appealed to the governments of India and Japan to bring the remains back home. (PTI)
