Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and his ideals remain the perennial source of inspiration for the younger generations of the country in the hour of crisis,” said Dr Purabi Roy, Head of the Department of History, Calcutta University, and a distinguished researcher on Netaji. She was addressing a mammoth gathering of Rashtra Sevika Samiti activists at the concluding session of a three-day Sammelan organised at India Club Grounds in Silchar. Dr Roy called upon the Sevikas to move forward in the service of the nation with the teachings of the great freedom fighter, Netaji, who alone could show “us the light out of the present darkness, symbolised by the declining values in our character and thought-process”. In this context, she narrated how a deeper conspiracy was hatched by the anti-national forces to keep afloat the theory about the supposed death of Netaji in the plane crash at Taipei on August 18, 1945 with dubious design. Piecing together the sequences of events of the plane-crash, Dr Purabi Roy said an unofficial source confirmed the death of Netaji in air-crash. But, the British investigation on the basis of a document recovered in Bangkok described the air crash theory as ‘deception plan’ after carrying out necessary study. A fresh investigation undertaken by the British quoted Aung Sung, an admirer of Netaji, saying that he did die in crash. Subsequently, National Herald, a premier daily, came out with the headline that Netaji was in Russia. It was however contradicted by Pravada of Moscow in an article that Netaji was not in Russia. In the midst of such contradictory information Mahatma Gandhi asserted that ‘Netaji is alive and the nation needs him’. She referred to March 1946 when Jawaharlal Nehru and Lord Mountbatten allegedly took control of the enormous INA FUND totaling Rs 72,000 crore and mishandled it. It was, according to her, the beginning of corruption even before India got Independent. The disappearance of Netaji was worst confounded by the contradictory reports of two doctors of Tokyo who claimed to have examined the body of Netaji after plane-crash. While Tsuruta confirmed his death, Toneyoshi Yoshimi did not. After Independence, under public pressure, the Nehru Government formed Shah Nawaz Commission to investigate and it corroborated the death of Netaji in plane-crash. In 1972, Justice GD Khosla Committee too confirmed the death theory. When NDA Government came to power, Mukherjee Commission investigating the case came across a relevant file in London which the British Government said could not be opened before 2021. Based on circumstantial evidences, it found no substance behind the plane-crash death. Moreover, it also came out with the startling revelations that the ashes preserved in the temple of Renkoji in Tokyo are not that of Netaji. Recalling the revolutionary role of Rani Jhansi Brigade of INA, Purabi Roy said the volunteers imbibed with the highest sense of nationalism and patriotism fought for the liberation of the country. At the present juncture, Rashtra Sevika Samiti activists “are playing the same role and the role model before them should always be the dreams and ideas of Subhas Bose,” she pointed out.
Posted on: Wed, 03 Sep 2014 10:05:15 +0000