Secrets of "Netaji's ashes" to remain secret
Anuj Dhar
This was a case that the Central Information Commission said was “one of the most interesting cases” ever brought before it. People say Subhas Chandra Bose’s ashes are lying in a Japanese temple. But what about a hitherto secret PMO not which says they were received in India by former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru? Here’s our RTI quest. |
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Official version has it that Subhas Chandra Bose was killed following an air crash and cremated in Taipei. The Mukherjee Commission found out that the crash was a cover for his escape to the USSR and body of a Japanese soldier was passed off as Bose's. Be that as it may, what really became of the ashes? The official version is that they were taken to Tokyo's Renkoji temple, where they remain till date. |
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And there is yet another "official" version tucked away in a classified Prime Minister's Office (PMO) file: They were secretly received in India by Prime Minister/External Affairs Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. Going by the tone of this 1954 note, those "ashes and other remains" might have ended up either in South Block or the office of All India Congress Committee (AICC). |
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Now it seems that we will never know how true or false the PMO version is. After a year-long RTI attempt, Mission Netaji has failed to resolve the riddle of "Netaji's remains" the PMO record says were received by Pandit Nehru. The Central Information Commission (CIC), after hearing the views of Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) and Mission Netaji's Anuj Dhar, has stated that it "can only hope that some serious researcher will look into one of the greatest mysteries of modern India and arrive at a definite conclusion". |
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What drove Information Commission Dr OP Kejariwal to make this gloomy observation was the MEA's insistence that "they had no records with them on the matter and hence could not proceed any further with the RTI-application." |
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Dr Kejariwal, however, underlined in his decision dated 26 July 2007 that "one look at the note emanating from the Prime Minister's Secretariat ... would seem to open up an altogether new line of inquiry with the implication that Netaji's ashes and other remains were brought back to the country by the late Prime Minister, Pt. Jawaharlal Nehru." |
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A top notch historian that he is, Dr Kejariwal was compelled to concede in his order that "this is one of the most interesting cases which has come before the Commission" and that "the mystery deepens". |
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Background to the case |
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