It is said that the dim haze of a mystery adds enchantment to the pursuit. This is true about the mystery of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s disappearance seventy years ago. While a part of our mind wants the mystery to be unraveled another
wishes it to linger on.
Things are still murky, despite the West Bengal Government having declassified 64 confidential files on Netaji’s disappearance and its aftermath. The country is still rife with speculations.
lord Wavell, the then Viceroy of India, wrote in Viceroy’s Journal dated 24 August 1945, six days after the purported death of Netaji in the ‘crash’: “I wonder if the Japanese announcement of Subhash Chandra Bose’s death in an air-crash is true. I suspect it very much. It is just what would be given out if he meant to go underground. If it is true it will be a great relief. His disposal would have presented a most difficult problem.”
They were turbulent times and Subhash, alive, would definitely have proved a ‘difficult problem’ for them to
dispose of. The Indian leadership too might have wished the same. For, it would have doubtless proved horrendously
difficult for them to deal with Netaji during the sanguinary days of partition and its equally gory aftermath if he were in India and chose to stand like a rock to the shenanigans to barter away unity for truncated freedom.
Rabindranath Tagore wired to Gandhiji on 20 December 1939 from Santiniketan, asking the latter to immediately lift the ban imposed on Subhash and invite his cordial cooperation in the supreme interest of national unity.
Things were in turmoil in Congress in the aftermath of Subhash’s re-election to its presidentship at Tripuri in January 1939 in the teeth of fierce opposition from Gandhiji and his coterie. Subhash won the election, receiving 1575 votes against Gandhiji-backed Pattabhi Sitaramayya who managed 1376 votes.
Gandhiji wired back to Tagore two days later. “Your wire was considered by working committee. With knowledge they have, they are unable to lift ban. My personal opinion is that you should advise Subhash Babu to submit to discipline if ban is to
be removed.”
Gandhiji wrote an interesting letter to Charles Andrews, the common friend of Tagore and Gandhiji, from Wardha on 15 January 1940. “My dear Charlie, If you think it proper tell Gurudev that I have never ceased to think of his wire and anxiety. I feel that Subhash is behaving like a spoilt child of the family. The only way to make up with him is to open his eyes. And then his politics show sharp differences. They seem to be unbridgeable. I am quite clear that the matter is too complicated for Gurudev to handle. let him trust that no one in the committee has anything personal against Subhash. For me, he is as my son.”
After Japan surrendered there are reasons to believe that Subhash was unwilling to return to India either as a war captive or a free man, an extremely sensitive person as he was.
An important minister of the INA Government in exile S A Ayer said before Khosla commission that Netaji was determined to embark on ‘an adventure into the unknown’. Netaji’s personal secretary Bhaskaran said before the same commission that Netaji had dictated to him a letter written to an important member of the Azad Hind Government in exile a day before he embarked on the ‘adventure into the unknown’. The letter ran thus: “I am starting a long journey tomorrow. Who knows I might die in an air-crash in course of this journeyIJ”
Shahnawaz Khan who had headed the first inquiry committee into the mystery stated before the Khosla Commission that Netaji’s intention was to ask Japanese to fly him to Manchuria. “His idea was to go to Manchuria and then just to walk across into Russian lines. He was prepared to take this risk,” Khan said.
Interestingly, the death certificate of Netaji was never found. The Government of India tried to find out the certificate through the Japanese ambassador posted in Formosa in 1956. The Japanese Government informed that the certificate could not have been recovered despite best efforts. However, a cremation permit was found at Taipei. The document mentioned the name of Ichiro Okura as the deceased. Since the death of Netaji was kept strictly confidential at that time this cremation permit on Ichiro Okura must correspond to the case for late Subhash Chandra Bose, the Japanese officials said.
The deceased’s date of birth was 9 April, 1900, death on 19 August, 1945, cause of death- heart attack, occupation — soldier and date of cremation — 22 August 1945. Significantly, except for the date of
cremation, nothing in the report matched with Netaji.