A day after de-classified Intelligence reports revealed that Subhash Chandra Bose’s family was spied upon by the Intelligence Bureau (IB), noted author and BJP spokesperson MJ Akbar has explained why Jawaharlal Nehru feared his erstwhile colleague.
In a hard hitting opinion piece written for Economic Times, MJ Akbar says that both Subhash Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru were leaders of equal stature and intellect, but there was only one place at helm and it was reserved for Nehru.
Subhash Chandra Bose and Jawaharlal Nehru were too similar to cooperate beyond a point, for there was only one place at the top and Gandhi had reserved it for Nehru.
While the author has praised the two freedom fighters in equal measure, he gives Bose the edge because he was analytical and strategic which may have made him a better fit for the country’s top job. He goes on to say that Bose was ‘ fiercely independent’ in his decisions and that may have led Mahatma Gandhi to developed an unexplained dislike for Bose.
Gandhi took an early, and still unexplained, dislike for Bose. Perhaps the Mahatma saw in Bose the one national hero who could interfere with his plans or Nehru.
MJ Akbar further elucidates on the ‘dislike’ saying that once Bose welcomed Gandhi in Bengal with a parade of volunteers only to be mocked with ‘uncharacteristic venom’.
During 1937 general election campaign that Gandhi had entrusted to Nehru but sooner realised that Bose was more popular leader. The rift between Gandhi and Bose, MJ Akbar says, was now complete that it finally led to Bose forming his own party.
The conventional view was that Bose had marginalised himself out of national space by leaving Gandhi, Congress and then the country in 1941. Two events in 1946 proved that this view was utterly wrong. The revolt in the Indian Navy in February was evidence that Bose’s influence in the armed forces was beyond the control of the British. And the trial of Bose’s INA veterans at the Red Fort for treason led to such mass rage that British rule was no longer tenable. India’s young had spoken. And they had spoken in the voice of Bose.
The mystery surrounding Bose’s death in an air crash led to Pandit Nehru’s concerns. There were rumours that Bose may have survived the crash and the snooping was one way to check if that was true or not.
Bose was also the only leader who could have patched together a non-Congress coalition. What happened in 1977 could so easily have occurred in 1962. It is interesting to speculate on what impact this might have had on China’s war plans against India, or for that matter Pakistan’s aggression in 1965.
MJ Akbar says more unclassified files about Bose will just lead to questions about his mysterious death and whether or not he survived the air crash.
The article ends with a series of questions over Jawaharlal Nehru’s repeated appointment of BN Mullick as the IB chief.
Let me leave you with a thought. The head of IB during Nehru’s prime ministership, and indeed beyond, was BN Mullik. All IB chiefs have limited terms. Mullik was never removed from his chair. Why? Did Mullik know something that gave him what can only be described as blackmail powers over the Congress government?
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