THE NETAJI I KNEW

Diplomat\\'s diary | Rai Singh

First time I heard of Subhas Chandra Bose was from an awed police officer, an uncle of mine really. By 1939 Bose had risen to be the president of the Congress party. We all know what happened when he contested for the second term. He won hands down against Gandhi\\'s candidate Pattabhi Sitaramayya. And instead of accepting defeat with grace, Gandhi refused support to Bose. To me, it was a vindictive act, and since then I lost faith in Gandhi.

Bose soon realised that despite being the elected president of the Congress party he was not in a position to implement his programme of action. He formed Forward Bloc. But nurturing it required years, whereas to Bose time had come to take on the colonial rulers. So he secretly left Calcutta and reached Peshawar. From Peshawar it was not difficult to reach Kabul; rather it was risky because the locals were most unreliable. Somehow Bose managed to reach Kabul and there he contacted Italian Consul General Alberto Qrioni, who helped him reach Rome.

In Rome Netaji first met Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano at Viale Angelo Secchi to apprise him of the developments in India and their effect in the conduct of War. Thereafter Bose met Benito Mussolini. It was after a telephonic talk between Ciano and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop that the Italian Government provided Bose with necessary travel facilities to reach Berlin, where the final decision about providing the Axis help to the Indian patriot was to be thrashed out. Bose wanted to meet Adolf Hitler before the discussions. Surprisingly, Hitler too wanted a meeting with Bose. Since Hitler knew no English, and Bose only a smattering of German, Dr Girija Mookherji, who was living in Germany, was called as the interpreter. The German authorities gave the consent because Mookherji was married to an Austrian Lady.

The meeting between Bose and Hitler began on a good note, but when it came to the crucial question of German help, differences emerged. Hitler wanted the Indian PoWs captured by the Germans in north Africa to serve under the German military Command; whereas Bose wanted them to be regrouped under Indian officers who were to cooperate with the German Army. At one point during the deliberations, Hitler pounded the table with his fist and declared that the Indian leader was in no position to demand anything. No wonder the meeting with Hitler ended in a stalemate. The question now was what to do with Bose. In my diplomatic career, I learnt from some German sources that Hitler and a section of the Nazi Party toyed with the idea of handing over Bose to the British in exchange for Rudolf Hess.

It was at that time that Hiroshi Oshima, the Japanese Ambassador in Berlin, came up with the plan to transfer Bose to Singapore. I am told that Ribbentrop and German Air Chief Hermann Goering favoured the Japanese ambassador\\'s plan, and finally Hitler consented to it.

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