Netaji family bats for Justice Mukherjee's report

THE HINDU

Netaji kin want UPA to reverse decision on panel report

Want Centre to secure documents from U.K., Russia

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Netaji does not belong to any particular family....
Integrity of previous Government questioned....

Kolkata: The UPA Government should reverse its decision rejecting the M.K. Mukherjee Inquiry Commission's recommendations and make efforts to secure classified documents from the U.K. and Russia on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, members of his family said on Friday.

Pointing out that as per the Official Secrets Act, classified documents on Netaji would be declassified only in 2020, his nephew Subrata Bose told a press conference: "The Government should make all-out efforts to secure the classified documents from the U.K. and the KGB which have secret information on Netaji."

He also demanded that the Government lift the official status given to the Renkoji Temple in Tokyo where the alleged ashes of Netaji were kept and stop providing it monetary aid.

He regretted that the view of Krishna Bose, wife of Netaji's nephew late Sisir Bose, did not match that of the Bose family.

"Netaji does not belong to any particular family. He belongs to the entire nation," he said. "We do agree with the Mukherjee Commission's findings that Netaji did not die in the plane crash in 1945," he said.

"We have all failed to understand why the wife and son of Netaji's elder brother Sisir Bose did a volte face and, without having any proof, opposed the Commission report, which had conclusively proved that though Netaji was no more now, he did not die in the 1945 plane crash and therefore the so-called ashes at the Renkoji temple could not be that of Netaji's," Mr. Bose said.

He questioned the integrity of even the previous NDA government and its allies in extending the fullest cooperation to the Commission during its five-year tenure. He also described as unprecedented the UPA Government's rejection of the report, submitted in Parliament on May 17 this year.

"This has created various speculations," Mr. Bose said, adding they wondered whether this was done to hide some unsavoury facts from the public or to save the reputation of some well-known personalities.

In support of his contention that Netaji did not die in the air crash, Mr. Bose pointed out that Radhabinod Pal, India's representative to Japan's War Crimes Tribunal, had also drawn the same inference after reviewing documents. "More than 60 years have passed since Netaji's disappearance, but there is still secrecy surrounding it. Efforts should be made to unearth all that now," he said. Praising the Commission, he said: "It was very independent and unbiased, and we welcome its recommendations." — PTI