DO NOT LECTURE NOW, PROFESSOR!

January 20, 2009 by vinayras

DO NOT LECTURE NOW, PROFESSOR!

Professor Sugata Bose's family ducked when the Commission summoned them; and now after the judgement, they are out to defame Justice MK Mukherjee.

May 29, 2006

Debating points | Anuj Dhar

For a man who dodged the Mukherjee Commission, Professor Sugata Bose talks big. (See: The Mortal End of a Deathless Hero, Indian Express on May 21, 2006). It would have served the nation better if he had made his case before the commission, formed after the Calcutta High Court and the Government of India considered all facts of this "definitive matter of public importance". Incidentally, a notable associate of the professor, another pretentious peddler of the plane crash theory, did try to take the commission on an ego trip, and had his hubris punctured publicly.

Lest the readers construe the mish-mash dished out by Professor Bose as some erudite exposition, it must be pointed out that it is an old hat. Justice Mukherhee is way off, anyone who has followed the case would know that these so-called "compelling facts" are trite and commonplace. What the professor has done is to fish out selective bits from here and there and mixed with them his own prejudices conditioned by that of his parents -- Mrs Krishna Bose and late Dr Sisir Bose.

There is one big obstacle to lending credence to Professor Bose's family's views. They did not appear before the commission, which was to find out the truth. As a matter of fact, Professor Bose was charged with having "failed to appear before the Commission on being summoned". Dr Sisir Bose, the fountainhead of professor's informations, actually wrote to the commission that he was "not competent to depose in this matter" as he had no "knowledge as to the issues referred to the commission". Krishna Bose too implored the commission to excuse her "from any personal appearance as a witness before the Hon'able commission".

It is very shocking then that Sugata (and his mother) should now be launching a vitriolic tirade against a reputed ex-Supreme Court judge whose bold inquiry has vindicated not some "cranks or opportunists" but, among others, the bulk of Bose family members -- professor's grandparents included.

A cursory glance at the "evidence" by Professor Bose will show how fragile they are.

One, all the events and the people mentioned in his article were fully known to the Mukherjee Commission. Most witnesses to the events before and after Netaji's disappearance appeared before the last two panels. Their exhaustive on-oath depositions and other intelligence and official records were studied by the Commission. Running into thousands of pages, these documents are not deposited in Harvard University, but consigned to the Government of India's vaults as classified material. Professor Bose has just gleaned some bits from easily available sources.

Two, either Professor Bose's basic premise is terribly misplaced or he is fudging it deliberately to avoid taking the discussion to a level that could make danger bells toll in the South Block. He writes that "there was some discussion at Bangkok on August 16, 1945 that he (Netaji) should go into hiding in Thailand". Thailand? Justice Mukherjee's report quotes the following from a classified testimony of Japanese general Saburo Isoda who had worked out Bose's movements at that time. "The purpose of his (Netaji's) flight was to go the Soviet Union and with the aid of the Soviet Union he was to continue his independence movement."

Three, the evidence of the witnesses to Netaji's "death" bristled with numerous material discrepancies and contradictions. So much so that in 1978 the Government of India was constrained to reject the findings of the earlier two panels. This stand held good till 1998, when the court ordered them to launch a new inquiry. And this inquiry has found out that "in cooking up the story of Netaji's death in the plane crash and giving it a modicum of truth they (the Japanese military authorities and Habibur Rahman) had no other alternative than resorting to suppression of facts and in so doing they not only invited material contradictions in their evidence ... but also left latent loopholes which have now been discovered."

An example can be made of a point made by Professor Bose. "The plane crashed on takeoff at Taipei airport." It isn't as simple as it seems. Justice Mukherjee elaborates that according to Habibur Rahman, "the plane nosedived from a fairly high altitude 'possibly over 12-14000 feet'." "If this evidence of Habibur Rahman is to be believed then none of the passengers ... could have survived," his report says. Incredibly enough, all those heading to the USSR "died" following the "crash"; whereas the rest survived with minor injuries. Wasn't that somewhat fishy?

Four, Professor Bose writes that "there is a good deal of pertinent documentary evidence regarding Netaji's mortal end." Well, Justice MK Mukherjee must be knowing a thing or two about what constitutes evidence. He has observed the following in his report: "Even a cursory glance (at some of such documents) makes it abundantly clear that they could not - and do not - by any stretch of imagination relate to Netaji." The professor brings into picture Dr Yoshimi who made a statement on Netaji's death "and repeated it several times until the 1990s". Justice Mukherjee, who isn't an academician like Professor Leonord Gordon, also examined this man and analysed his previous testimonies. The commission's report proves that Dr Yoshimi is an inveterate liar who "manufactured" a fake certificate of Neaji's death.

Five, Professor Bose is not right when he hints that intelligence teams led by Finney and Davis confirmed Netaji's death. If they had done so, Clement Attlee's Cabinet wouldn't have discussed the threat posed by Subhas in October 1945. Philip Finney, a deputy director with the Intelligence Bureau, remained on lookout for Netaji as late as April 1946 when he was told that "Taihoku (Taipei), Congress and Russian representatives ... are the most important objectives in this case as it stands now".

Six, the professor has given a grossly misleading impression that his grandfather Sarat Chandra Bose, grandaunt Emilie Schenkl and Mohandas Gandhi believed in Netaji's death. It is an undisputed fact that after the initial shock Sarat Bose had concluded that that the Taipei crash was a ruse. With regard to Emilie's views, Professor Bose would do well to consult his father's friend Pranab Mukherjee, the current Defence Minister of ours, whose suspicious attempt to prove Netaji's death was thwarted by her in 1995 (See: This Mukherjee is a bad news for Netaji inquiry). As for Gandhi, the following was communicated by him to Louis Fischer in July 1946: "If Bose comes with the help of Russia neither Gandhiji nor the Congress will be able to reason with the country ...."

Seven, Professor Bose refers to Harin Shah, SA Ayer, Rama Murti and John Figges -- a Lt Colonel who wasn't any "chief" of British intelligence. Justice Mukherjee's report discredits Shah's claims and concludes that Ayer's evidence actually supports the view that Netaji did not die in 1945. The other two characters are central to a shocking tale of the swindling of the INA treasure. (See: Treachery and the INA treasure)

It would be pertinent to recall here that the US State Department stated in June 1946 that there was "no direct evidence" of Bose's death. The Americans reached Taiwan in September 1945 and they were the first to lay hands on Colonel Habibur Rahman Khan who, Justice Mukherjee writes, was "a party to the escape plan" of Netaji.

Lastly, Professor Bose remarks that the Netaji mystery "has been mercilessly exploited by a handful of people to make all sorts of fraudulent claims". It wouldn't be out of context to refer to the views of his mother's famous uncle, writer Nirad C Chaudhury. Netaji, Chaudhury said, had become "a good business preposition" for a section of his family. "The likes of Sisir Bose cannot shed new light on Netaji's life. All that can do is encash on their Rangakaka (uncle Subhas) and claim that they have been an inseparable part of his struggle."

Now that a commission of inquiry has found out that Netaji most likely vanished into the USSR, our duty should be to find out what really happened. To assure those who see things only from a monetary perspective - this won't cost much. Start by asking the Government why they never took up the Netaji issue with the USSR.

Anuj Dhar is the author of Back from Dead: Inside the Subhas Bose Mystery.