Subhash Bose: The investigations

The Central Govt extended the term of the Liberman Commission inquiring into the demolition of disputed structure at Ayodhya, but at the same time it has denied extension to the Justice MK Mukherjee Commission investigating the disappearance of Subhash Chandra Bose. Subhash Bose, was believed to have died in a plane crash in Taipei, but recently it was discovered that there was no plane crash at that time. There are theories that he was in Soviet Union at that time and the Commision is not visiting Russia to examine the documents due to lack of time. Why is the Congress Govt. not interested in finding the truth ?
So we come to our favourite whipping boy, Jawaharlal Nehru, who had infact setup a commision to investigate Bose’s disappearance.

Intriguingly enough (a fact glossed over nowadays), Nehru declared that the death of Netaji in Taihoku aircrash was a settled fact even before the committee could furnish its report. Its tenure was a mere four months and it dared not upset Nehru’s “settled fact”. So it recommended repatriating the ashes preserved in Japan’s Renkoji temple, fabled to be of Netaji’s, but is doubtful whether it is of any human being at all. The only accompanying “proof” was a death certificate in Japanese, which, when translated into English, turned out to be a Japanese soldier who had died of heart failure from exhaustion during World War II.
The opinion of other two members of the committee was at variance with that of Shah Nawaz but his (actually Nehru’s version) prevailed. After all, this ex-INA Major General was deeply indebted to Nehru personally. In Independent India, former INA members were debarred from entering the Indian Armed forces or try their luck in politics. Nehru found INA-people “disloyal, uncouth, and unpatriotic” and it was not until Indira Gandhi’s regime that they allowed pension. On the contrary, there was no such restriction in Pakistan as Taya Jenkin informs in her book, Reporting India.
Nehru was exceptional in patronising one ex-INA brass, Shah Nawaz Khan, who was recalled (virtually highjacked) from Pakistan where he had migrated after Partition, and was made a minister of state in Nehru’s Ministry. Such was the private reason for Shah Nawaz’s public statement endorsing Nehru’s views on Netaji’s “death”. However, Nehru himself was not convinced of Netaji’s death. Indians were given to believe as gospel what people like Shah Nawaz and Habibur Rehman, who had crossed over to Pakistan, said about Netaji’s fate. A battered Nehru, sometime before his death in 1964, had engaged in correspondence with Netaji’s elder brother Ashok Bose. Nehru therein had agreed that the truth behind Netaji’s disappearance should be brought out. Nothing unsettled Nehru’s “settled fact” like his own admission. [Netaji beyond Taihoku aircrash]

There are stories that Subhash Bose came later to India and lived as a monk in Uttar Pradesh. The present commision has investigated this monk and visited the places where he stayed and examined his belongings.
We may not know the whole truth, but some information will be available when the MK Mukherjee Commision submits its report soon.
There is also a new movie by Shyam Benegal titled Bose: The Forgotten Hero based on the last five years of Subhash Bose’s life.