#NehruSnooped: Many believe Nehru did not want Netaji back in India

What happened to one of India’s greatest patriots — who the British branded as a traitor for collaborating with the Japanese and the Germans during WW II — remains a mystery after all these years. Investigations into his disappearance have contradicted the official version. What was told to the public was that Bose died in a plane crash in Taihoku airport in Taiwan on August 18, 1945. There are some who, however, believe Bose came back to India as a Hindu monk.

And then there are others who say he was kept in solitary confinement in Siberia. Many believe Jawaharlal Nehru and his government did not want Bose back in India. Lt colonel Habibur Rahman Khan, Netaji's trusted aide-de-camp, is widely believed to be the sole survivor of that fateful plane crash. Rahman later enshrined Bose’s ashes in the Renkoji temple in Tokyo. He said Netaji died of burns in a hospital later. Rahman himself was badly hurt while trying to rescue Bose from the fire. Sceptics have not believed Rahman’s version also.

I do not understand why the PMO has refused to disclose records relating to Bose’s death as it rejected the argument that there was a larger public interest involved in making them public. The Right to Information Act allows for a public authority to disclose records which are otherwise exempt from disclosure if public interest outweighs the harm protected. Cannot understand the surveillance. My cousins had no security implications at all.

(As told to Daipayan Halder.)