Chandra Kumar Bose, grandnephew of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, has made an appeal to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to make efforts to bring back freedom fighter and his grandfather’s remains from Renkoji Temple in Japan to India.
In a letter penned to the Prime Minister of India, Chandra Bose urged it would be a “great dishonor” to Netaji if his mortal remains were left lying in a foreign land. He urged for bringing the remains back before Netaji’s birth anniversary on January 23.
According to Bose, the mortal remains of Netaji need to be brought to India to pay a rich homage to his great legacy. “Netaji wanted to return to Independent India, but he could not, as he sacrificed his life on August 18, 1945, fighting for India’s freedom,” Bose wrote. He reiterated the call for a memorial in the name of Netaji to be created in the nation’s capital, preferably on Kartavya Path, as a lasting tribute.
This is the latest petition by Bose, who has filed a series of similar requests in the past, including one filed as recently as August.
Bose’s plea comes against the backdrop of historical inquiries into the life and death of Netaji. He acknowledged in the letter the previous initiatives by the government, such as declassifying files related to Netaji’s life, as he said those have already brought some closure on the circumstances of his death. “After the release of all the files (10 enquiries-national and international), it is clear that Netaji met his demise on August 18, 1945,” Bose wrote, adding that it was “now imperative that a final statement is made from the government of India, so that false narratives about the liberator of India are laid to rest.”
He remembers the Shah Nawaz Committee, established by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1956, into the disappearance of Netaji. This committee was headed by INA Veteran General Shah Nawaz Khan and its testimony comprised eleven direct eye witnesses testifying to the crash of the aircraft in Taiwan that declared Netaji dead. They were Japanese military men, Taiwanese doctors and medical professionals and Colonel Habib ur Rahman, Netaji’s Indian attendant, who managed to escape the crash.
Further investigations vindicated the Shah Nawaz Committee report as well. In 1974, the Khosla Commission reaffirmed the original accepted report by the government of India. But in 2005, the Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry raised doubts against those findings and concluded that it was not Netaji, who met his end in the crash. Once again, the government dismissed it by citing “fundamental errors” in the conclusions.
In his letter, Bose acknowledged the effort of the Indian government, particularly under PM Modi’s leadership, to resolve long-standing questions regarding Netaji’s life.
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