By Udayan Namboodiri
(Reproduced with the permission of the daily Pioneer, which carried this piece titled as "A new twist" on January 22, 2006)
On Monday, January 23, Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose\\'s 108th birth anniversary will be celebrated in the usual quiet way by millions of Indians who hold him close to their hearts as a leader who changed the course of history. In many ways, this will be a unique birthday.
For the first time, the people of India have definite evidence that the great patriot did not die as a result of an accident in Taipei\\'s Taihoku airport on August 25, 1945, but was definitely the victim of some insidious plot, the needle of suspicion pointing to the same machinations which had caused his exit from the Indian National Congress after re-election as its president in Tripuri in 1939. Between his last birthday and this one, enough facts have come in the public domain, thanks to the transparent working of the Justice MK Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry JMCI), for everybody to conclude that the fiction about the air crash was created to facilitate Netaji\\'s escape to Communist China and eventually the USSR, from where he never returned.
JMCI\\'s report is now with the Government. It would have to be tabled in the Budget session of Parliament along with an Action Taken Report. By all indications, it will leave more questions than answers. If Netaji did not die in Taiwan, where did he live out the remainder of his life and under what circumstances did he die? JMCI went tantalisingly close to the truth, but was tripped by the UPA-Communist combine\\'s dirty tricks department. The Commission was denied access to key archives and persons and the truth continues to lie under layers of deceit. Cynics may comment that Justice Mukherjee has only given a fresh lease of life to the "Netaji industry", but that cannot be helped. As long as Governments play cat and mouse with the truth, the appetite for mystery will only be whetted.
Netaji continues to be the second-most popular hero of the 20th Century for Indians. In a BBC opinion poll carried out in December, 2004, a whopping 21 per cent of respondents voted for him. Mahatma Gandhi got 36 per cent and Jawaharlal Nehru drew a blank. We, at The Pioneer, got a real feel of the emotions that Netaji rouse in the average Indian. In January last year, when the UPA Government informed JMCI that it was time to pack up and that no more extensions would be given after May 14, this paper decided to swing into action. We were convinced that the just-out revelation about the Taihoku non-crash needed to be pursued to its logical end and JMCI ought to be given as many extensions as would be necessary for unraveling the Russian angle.
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