A game of patience

MN wins crucial victory in RTI case against Ministry of Defence; but CIC’s order on documents of the Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry remains unimplemented; and the CIC does not seem to be in a hurry to take action.

Very few people would know that the Government of India commissioned a historian to write the official version of the Indian National Army. The manuscript – compiled by Dr PC Gupta – was completed in 1950, but languished in some obscure secret corner at the History Division of the Ministry of Defence for the next fifty years. Only in the last decade was the manuscript declassified and opened to public consultation. When asked on the floor of the Lok Sabha, as recently as in September 2007, “whether the Government proposes to publish the manuscript to make the book easily available to scholars and readers,” the Minister of Defence, Mr AK Anthony stated that “There is no such proposal before the Government,” and therefore the question when it is likely to be published does not arise (Unstarred Question No 2855, answered on 3 September 2007). read more…

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The rabbit hole of Netaji mystery

As of today, the Netaji mystery maze has only two ways out. One leads to Russia, and the other to Faizabad. This I am stating with some knowledge of the issues involved. Inclusive of the myriad Netaji turned sadhu baba tales.

The point is, on scrutiny the entire gamut of theories vanish leaving only the aforementioned two premises. One can say whatever one wishes to — Netaji was in Guna, Dehradun, Sheopurkalan, or he was killed in the Red Fort — but without some backup evidence nothing is going to pass muster.

As things stand now, the seminal findings of the Mukherjee Commission will require to be worked upon to bring about an end to the controversy. It has been confirmed that Netaji flew towards the USSR even as his friends in the Imperial Japanese Army cooked up the news of his death. This begs the question: What happened to Netaji in the USSR? Right now there is nothing to conclusively prove that he was even there. Our Government isn’t interested; they formed an opinion long ago that Bose had died in Taiwan.

The Russians have given some inadequate information to them on the lines that Bose never came to the USSR in 1945 and afterwards. (An attempt by my friends and I to access the complete information under the RTI has not succeeded.) All we are left with are some intelligence and other reports saying Bose was in the USSR. Those bits might help one to form some belief or make further inquiries, which won’t be possible without the Government’s assistance.

Many people think that Netaji never got out of the USSR. They allege that he was kept a prisoner in a Siberian gulag and subsequently liquidated sometime during the Stalin era. Stalin butchered millions of his own people, he was not expected to show any affection to Subhas — the logic goes. Researcher VP Saini, who wrote a book titled ‘Conspirators, Abductors and Killers of Netaji?’ publicly says that former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru was tacitly responsible for Netaji’s fate. Noted Russia expert Dr Purabi Roy is of the similar opinion. Personally, I have not come across anything credible to suggest that Bose was eliminated in the USSR.

The fascinating tale of Bhagwanji is on the other end of spectrum. Its preposterous outlook makes it repulsive to most people. Anyhow, for a variety of reasons, including a report given by India’s top handwriting expert, this case has something to stand on. But more investigation is required to arrive at a conclusion about Bhagwanji’s identity. This is taking into account Mukherjee Commission’s disapproval of the Bhagwanji angle “in absence of any clinching evidence”. That is, there was some evidence, but not enough. For instance, let’s see this passage from the report:

“Apparently, there is no reason for not acting or relying upon the evidence of the last two categories of witnesses particularly of the category who had seen Netaji before 1945 and also met Bhagwanji/Gumnami Baba face to face on a number of occasions, more so when their evidence regarding the frequent visits of some freedom fighters, eminent politicians and former members of INA on January 23 and during the Durga Puja festival is supported by the fact that letters written by some of them including Prof Samar Guha, Dr Pabitra Mohan Roy and Ms Leela Roy were found in `Rambhawan’.”

But, as the report noted, “there are other formidable facts and circumstances on record which stand in the way of this Commission in arriving at a conclusive finding that Bhagwanji/Gumnami Baba was none other than Netaji”.

As I see them, those facts and circumstances are:

1. The passing away of Bhagwanji’s front-ranking associates who could have given unimpeachable evidence.

2. Absence of any photographic evidence.

3. Negative results thrown up by forensic tests performed by governmental labs on Bhagwanji’s handwritings and some teeth believed to be his.

As regards point 3, no reliance can be placed on the judgment drawn on the Netaji disappearance case by any individuals or institutions linked to the Government of India. The Government’s apparent aim is to hush up the matter and if anyone is willing to buy the word of their labs on Bhagwanji DNA test, etc, they should also go along with the Government’s version that Netaji died in Taiwan. I hear the believers in the Russia angle coming up with inconsistent arguments. They won’t believe the Government side when it comes to Russia, but will believe them on Bhagwanji. They can’t have a pick and choose policy to suit their thoughts.

I fear if the Renkoji ashes, or for that matter some pieces of bone china crockery, are tested for DNA matching here in India, they will be proven to be Netaji’s remains. If I have formed such a negative opinion about my own government, it is only after coming across their misdeeds over this case. Those who have openly obstructed the justice can go to any extent to keep things under wraps.

It is in this background that I’d like you to consider the following hypotheses, rather allegations, purporting to offer further insight into the Netaji mystery. They are to the effect that:

1. Our Government has been aware as to what happened to Netaji. They left him to rot in Stalin’s Russia.

2. The sadhu baba stories were planted by the Government with the twin purpose of diluting the Russian angle and trivilising the entire issue.

3. The game started in early 1960s with Shoulmari baba. BN Mullick, the famed Director of Intelligence Bureau and Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s right hand man, was behind it.

I am led to believe that our Government does have a good idea about the case. Two, there was something fishy about the sadhu of Shoulmari. The fellow who was said to be the administrator of the Shoulmari ashram was possibly an Intelligence Bureau officer.

And, I can’t help notice that the propagators of Shoulmari and other babas evidently had no insight into Netaji’s disappearance from Saigon. While countering the plane crash theory, which they had to, these people lifted arguments of Professor Samar Guha, who used to frequent Bhagwanji. Shoulmari and other babas also skipped the Russian angle, which I think is a reality so far as Netaji’s going there is concerned.

Bhagwanji called the Shoulmari subterfuge a “parallel bluff” and talked about “his” escaping to the USSR via Diren in Manchuria after a “concocted air crash”. He made an allegation about a top Azad Hind Government Minister – which rings true if we look at still classified records. It was rather intriguing for a holy man to talk about the functioning of prisons camps in Siberia. He gave out more details which appear to be the reasons why could not come out. One gets goose pimples thinking should they turn out to be true.

I fail to understand one thing: If indeed Netaji had been killed in the USSR in early 1950s, and some agency set up fake babas early 1960s onwards, what purpose would it have served? Why would the Government, which allegedly had things to hide, would shoot itself in foot by starting off a frenzy over a dead issue? What did Bhagwanji mean by “parallel bluff”? Why was the Central Intelligence Agency of America receiving dope on Subhas Bose as late as 1964? Didn’t those guys had better things to do?!

Some of the arguments made before Khosla Commission were hair-raising. It was charged that the Intelligence Bureau, a bugbear in those days, was on a lookout for information related to Bose. I remember one statement verbatim: “When the Government of India has accepted Shah Nawaz Committee’s report that Netaji is dead then how is it that the Intelligence Department goes after every news when it appears that Netaji is not dead and he is alive?”

All this (which is only a fraction of the facts I have collated in my book) call for some investigation if the people of this country think that the ambit of justice and truth also includes the case of Bose, as it does that of Jessica Lall. Such an investigation will have to be undertaken in the right earnest by our Government taking the public in full confidence. But as a prerequisite, they will do well to release all the information they, and their intelligence agencies, are sitting on. Then, they could take up the matter with the Russian Government at the highest level. They can always take a leaf out of Swedes’ book. After a decade of dogged pursuit, they managed to get the truth about Raoul Wallenberg out from the Russians. We won’t to wait that long. The Russians are our friends, and our Prime Minister is an admirer of Netaji.

The truth is out there. We can get to it by taking the issue head on, not by turning our backs on it. The starting point is Russia. The endgame could be in Russia or Faizabad. This is the point we have reached in the veritable rabbit hole of India’s biggest cover-up.

Anuj Dhar | Author: Back from Dead: Inside the Subhas Bose Mystery

Source: Facebook

Private admissions on a public issue

In a recently released documentary on Subhas Chandra Bose, Justice Mukherjee, who investigated for six years (1999-2005) Bose’s mysterious disappearance, has been shown to make a comment which has given a new twist to the debate that has been going on since his report was rejected by the central government.

Justice Mukherjee has been shown as saying that he is absolutely sure that the Dasnami Sannyasi who was last known to have lived at Ram Bhawan in Faizabad of Uttar Pradesh, in 1985, was none other than Bose. “It is my personal feeling…But I am 100 per cent sure that he (the monk) is Netaji,” he says.

Not surprisingly, this divergence between private belief and public verdict has been taken up as the stick to beat down the whole inquiry of six years by people who propagate Bose’s death in the plane crash. Very predictably, half-truths and lies are being thrown around to confuse people.

Yet, this is an issue that must be addressed squarely.

Justice Mukherjee’s assertion might not have any legal implication, but it certainly raises myriad questions. The natural question that follows is why Justice Mukherjee did not say this in his report despite such absolute certainty? What could have stopped him? Going by his report, the reason for his rejecting the possibility of the Sannyasi being Bose was “absence of any clinching evidence.” Then how does one justify his certainty despite the absence of such clinching evidence?

The answer could lie in the evidence that was produced to him and also in the way the evidence was treated by him. To be able to make sense of his conviction, it is therefore important to understand the nature of the evidence that was produced and the way he treated it.

The two major categories of evidence that was produced were individual witness accounts and the personal belongings of the Sannyasi, which included numerous books, letters, Bose’s family photographs. The Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry (JMCI) scrutinised over 2,600 of such items. Among the belongings were also found a few teeth kept in a match box. The letters were sent for handwriting analysis and the teeth were sent for DNA analysis. This line of investigation – that is, to see whether forensic evidence corroborates witness accounts – can hardly be flawed. Yet another factor was the kind of people who wrote letters to the Sannyasi. There were letters from Prafulla Ghosh (the first chief minister of West Bengal), MS Golwalkar (the RSS supremo at that time), Leela Roy (a firebrand revolutionary and close associate of Bose from the 1920s), Pabitra Mohan Roy (former intelligence officer in the INA) and many others.

Justice Mukherjee’s observation on this part of the evidence is revealing:

Apparently, there is no reason for not acting or relying upon the evidence of the last two categories of witnesses particularly of the category who had seen Netaji before 1945 and also met Bhagwanji I Gunmami Baba face to face on a number of occasions, more so when their evidence regarding the frequent visits of some freedom fighters, eminent politicians and former members of INA on January 23 and during the Durga Puja festival is supported by the fact that letters written by some of them including Prof. Samar Guha, Dr.Pabitra Mohan Roy and Ms. Leela Roy were found in ‘Rambhawan’.

So far so good. But…there are other formidable facts and circumstances on record which stand in the way of this Commission in arriving at a conclusive finding that Bhagwanji / Gumnami Baba was none other than Netaji.

These “other formidable facts” and circumstances were reports of the handwriting analysis and the DNA analysis. While the report from B Lal, for examiner of questioned documents of the government, and one of the foremost experts in this field, showed clearly in his analysis that the handwritings matched, the Office of the Government Examiner of Questioned Documents and Forensic Science Laboratory, Government of West Bengal, Kolkata gave the opposite opinion, but without providing any reasoned analysis. The result of the DNA analysis was also negative.

Thus, this issue was not rejected summarily by Justice Mukherjee, but he could not accept the hypothesis as majority evidence from the forensic examination did not support it. It is however important to recall that reasonable doubt have been cast on the reports of the government labs. There have been allegations of improper examination.

Now that Justice Mukherjee has given his personal view, these raise further questions on the veracity of the forensic evidences that came from the government institutions. This is a serious issue which should not be allowed to be brushed under the carpet.

It is also apposite to recall the other obstacles created towards smooth functioning of the commission — not providing crucial documents, destruction of files, not seeking high level assistance from Russia and the US governments. These are serious lapses by any criterion.

Thus, Justice Mukherjee’s revelation now provides the biggest reason for re-opening the investigation. Any sensible government would get the message. Whether a prejudiced Indian government would, is another matter altogether. It has been consistently apathetic to one of the greatest sons of India.

Source: Mission Netaji