Mystery deepens over Bose’s death.
By Sreekanth A. Nair
The mystery behind the disappearance of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose deepens as the Narendra Modi government declassified more files on the freedom fighter.
The new files declassified on Tuesday point fingers towards the fact that Bose may have escaped the plane crash in Taiwan on August 18, 1945, in which he is thought to have died.
The files include the details of three radio broadcasts which are believed to be done by Bose on three different dates after the plane crash, reported The Times of India.
The files belong to the governor’s house in West Bengal when R G Casey was the governor. PC Kar, an official at the then governor’s house claimed in the file that he had picked up three broadcasts.
The first broadcast dated December 26, 1945, said, “I am at present under the shelter of great World powers. My heart is burning for India. I will go to India on the crest of a Third World War. It may come in ten years or even earlier. Then I will sit on judgment upon those trying my men at the Red Fort.”
The second one on January 1, 1946, said, “We must get freedom within two years. The British imperialism has broken down and it must concede independence to India. India will not be free by means of ‘non-violence’. But I am quite respectful to Mahatma Gandhi.”
“This is Subhas Chandra Bose speaking, Jai Hind. This is the third time I am addressing my Indian brothers and sisters after Japan’s surrender… The PM of England is going to send Mr. Pethick Lawrence and two other members with no object in view other than let the British imperialism a permanent settlement by all means to suck the blood of India,” the third broadcast in February 1946 said.
The file also includes a letter written by Khurshed Naoroji, one of the secretaries of Mahatma Gandhi to the last British Viceroy Louis Mountbatten.
“At heart, the Indian Army is sympathetic to the INA (Bose’s Indian National Army). If Bose comes with the help of Russia, neither Gandhiji nor Nehru nor the Congress will be able to reason with the country,” the letter read.
Another record claims that the British Prime Minister had conducted a secret meeting on October 25, 1945, to discuss what to do with Bose in the post-war situation.
British military also had sent a secret message to Lord Mountbatten when he was the supreme commander of the Allied forces in Southeast Asia, describing that Bose didn’t board the plane and escaped to Thailand after the plane crash.
Some of the files also claimed that some documents relating to Bose were destroyed in 1972.