By Anuj Dhar
Mission Netaji learns that the Mukherjee Commission\\'s report has charged the Government of India of mala fide over their handling of the controversy surrounding the "death" of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Insiders say that a case that the report may refer to pertains to an inquiry conducted in 1956 in Taiwan -- whose rejection of the official story of Netaji\\'s death before the Commission in January 2005 caused heartburns in the corridors of power.
The original sin was committed under Jawaharlal Nehru\\'s regime, but what actually infuriated Justice Mukherjee was its perpetuation for over four decades. The Government had all along with them a report that put a question mark on Netaji\\'s death, but this report was withheld from the official panels probing Netaji\\'s death till the Mukherjee Commission traced it in UK\\'s National Archives.
In 1956 the Shah Nawaz Committee, the first panel to probe Netaji\\'s death, favoured an on-the-spot inquiry in Taiwan, where Netaji\\'s plane had allegedly crashed in August 1945. This apparently sent the Ministry of External Affairs in a tizzy. The matter was reported to the Prime Minister. No, the committee can\\'t go to Taiwan, the Government ruled, stating that they had approached the British High Commission in Delhi for help.
For inexplicable reasons, imaginary fears began to trouble the Government. They charged that the Taiwan government would not extend any help. "In fact they may put obstacles and suggest degrading conditions," insultingly stated a Secret dispatch. It also underlined that "politically this (the committee\\'s proposed visit) will be very embarrassing for us and might lead to complicating situation".
The ground situation was nothing like that. The Taiwanese were more than willing to help. When the British High Commission approached them, they reacted most considerately despite India\\'s not having diplomatic ties with them. A Franklin, the British Consul in Tamsui, Taiwan, took up the matter with CK Yen, the Chairman of Taiwan Provincial Government. The Taiwanese were given points of inquiry, as suggested by the Government of India, dealing with some witnesses and documentary evidence purportedly proving Netaji\\'s death.
After the inquiry, what Yen wrote to Franklin in July 1956 amounted to saying that there was no proper evidence for Bose\\'s death. There were no records and the cremation certificate issued for "Netaji" actually bore someone else\\'s name. The eyewitnesses listed out by the Indian Government either did not exist, and in case they did, they knew nothing. Those who did talk of some Indian\\'s death in 1945 were not sure if it was Bose. One witness to "Netaji\\'s cremation" clarified that he had merely seen a body whose "only the eyes, the nose and the lips were visible". "We were not acquainted with Bose in his lifetime, it therefore follows that we could not identify him after his death."
The British High Commission handed over five copies of the report they had received from Taiwan to Ministry of External Affairs in Delhi on August 9, 1956. On September 11, 1956 Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru presented in Parliament the report of the Shah Nawaz Committee. "Government feels that this conclusion of the Committee about Netaji\\'s death (in Taiwan) should be accepted as the evidence adduced in the report is practically overwhelming," Nehru told the lawmakers.
The Shah Nawaz Committee\\'s report was bereft of any mention of the inquiry that the Taiwanese had conducted for the Indians at the request of the British. Obviously, the External Affairs Ministry had not forwarded the report to the committee and had thereby deprived them of a crucial piece of evidence. It was not a one-off slip. In subsequent years, the Government did give any inkling about this report to the Khosla and Mukehrjee panels despite their being legally bound to do so. Unluckily for them, the British Government did not retain the report after 30 years. During his visit to the National Archives in London, Justice MK Mukherjee stumbled upon the papers in a folder they were not supposed to be in.
Anuj Dhar is the author of Back from Dead: Inside the Subhas Bose Mystery.
Related links: How Govt hid an important report; Truth was never so close
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