Even after three unfinished judicial commission reports, BJP president Rajnath Singh on Thursday asserted that once his party comes to power at the Centre, a fresh probe would be ordered to ascertain the causes and nature of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s death.
Visiting the Netaji Birthplace Museum at his ancestral home here on the occasion of the legendary leader’s 117th birth anniversary, Singh said a lot of research and investigation is required to ascertain the facts on Netaji’s missing after the plane in which he was travelling crashed over Taiwan on August 18, 1945.
“When the BJP forms Government at the Centre, we will order an inquiry into this mystery, which requires a lot of studies and research,” Singh said after garlanding Netaji’s statue at his ancestral house.
It may be mentioned that the Government of India till date has instituted at least three judicial commissions to probe Netaji’s missing and each time, for alleged non-cooperation from the Government, the commissions had to submit their unfinished reports that were subsequently rejected by the Government.
The latest was the Justice Manoj Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry, which was set up in 1999. But Justice Mukherjee was forced to submit his incomplete report in 2006 when he insisted on probing into the Soviet connection of missing Netaji.
Earlier also, the Shah Nawaz Commission and Khosla Commission reports were rejected by the Government of India as the then Governments at the Centre did not agree with the findings of the commissions. Justice Mukherjee had clearly said in his report that Netaji was dead, but he did not die in the plane crash over Taiwan and the ashes in a Japanese temple are not of Netaji’s.
Justice Mukherjee, for the first time, probed into the controversial Soviet connection and said Netaji was probably flown to the USSR after the plane crash and did indeed survive till the end of World War-II. The report had also suggested that more research was needed to unfold the Soviet angle of Netaji’s detention in a Siberian camp till about a year after his supposed death in the plane crash.