Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose died in an aircrash in 1945, the government said on Wednesday, putting to an end a controversy that refuses to be buried about the freedom fighter having survived the accident.
The Ministry of Home Affairs said in a reply to an RTI application from a Kolkata resident that the Government had come to this conclusion after considering the reports of various committees that probed the death of Bose, who, many believed, had not perished in the crash.
After considering the reports of the Shah Nawaz Committee, the Justice GD Khosla Commission and the Justice Mukherjee Commission of Enquiry, the government concluded that he had died in the crash, the ministry said in its reply.
It also sought to dispel reports that Bose, who was born in 1897, lived in disguise as ‘Gumnami Baba’ – which was the belief of a large section of Bose’s legion of admirers.
"The Mukherjee Commission had come to the conclusion that Gumnami Baba/Bhagwanji was not Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose," it said, adding that information regarding Gumnami Baba and Bhagwanji was available in the Mukherjee Commission report on pages 114-122, and on the website, mha.nic.in.
It also said so far 37 files related to Bose had been declassified.
The Home Ministry's spokesman further clarified that the reply to the RTI query was "based on the facts that were already in the public domain and the stand taken by Central governments over the years."
Congress Demands Apology
The Congress demanded an apology from Prime Minister Narendra Modi, BJP-led central government.
The BJP and RSS’ ‘dirty tricks department’ created a story about Subhash Chandra Bose’s death. There were repeated TV shows and programmes attacking especially Pt Nehru (Jawaharlal Nehru). There is the limit of lack of shame... Today, the government of the day gives an RTI reply saying that Netaji died in a plane crash.Ajoy Kumar, Congress Spokesperson
Kumar further said: "Modi and his government, for all their lies and Chandra Bose and the people who kept spreading this untruth and disinformation, should apologise to the people of this country."
Kumar also said that ever since the BJP came to power, there had been a “concerted attempt to denigrate the freedom fighters and tall leaders like Jawaharlal Nehru, Sardar Patel and Mahatama Gandhi and an orchestrated effort to rewrite history.
The Congress party holds Netaji as one of its tallest leaders, he said.
"The attempt by the BJP to capture (target) Congress leaders like Bose, Mahatama Gandhi, Sardar Patel, Lal Bahadur Shastri and Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya is only a reflection of lack of leaders in their party," he added.
Bose’s Family Demands Probe
Rejecting the Centre's statement on the death of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, BJP leader and his grand nephew Chandra Bose today demanded setting up a special investigation team to unravel the mystery of Netaji's disappearance.
I demand the Central government immediately take action against the officer who gave such an irresponsible reply. How can the government come to a conclusion regarding Netaji’s death without concrete evidence?
"The Central government should apologise for such misleading statements and form an SIT to unravel the mystery of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose's disappearance," said Bose, vice-president of the Bengal BJP unit.
In October, 2015, Prime Minister Narendra Modi had met the family members of Netaji and announced that the government would declassify the files relating to the leader.
Last year, on Netaji's 119th birth anniversary on 23 January, as many as 100 secret files were made public by Modi.
(With inputs from PTI, IANS)
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