RAJESH TALWAR - THE VANISHING OF SUBHASH BOSE: THE MYSTERY UNLOCKED

THE VANISHING OF SUBHASH BOSE:

THE MYSTERY UNLOCKED

THE WHITE RATS AND THE BROWN MICE

A few white rats get into a house full of thousands of brown mice. The white rats being bigger and more powerful take charge of the house and command the timid mice to do their bidding, which they do for many years. Over time however some mice rebel and refuse to do the rats bidding anymore. More and more of the brown mice are pulled to the movement known as non-cooperation. Meanwhile a few hundred mice escape from the house, team up with other mice in the neighbourhood and start to give the house a good shake from the outside. Inside the house, the white rats confer hurriedly. The provisions inside the house have mostly already been looted and little remains. They are increasingly disturbed by the mice inside the house who are not offering any cooperation and the mice outside who are shaking the house. They decide to leave. Only the white rats themselves know which mice troubled them more. Once they leave the brown mice inside the house take charge, take full credit for getting rid of the white rats, and assume control of the house. The brown mice who worked so hard from the outside are completely ignored.

DISCLAIMER BY AUTHOR

This publication is written with the understanding and the acknowledgment that the writer is not making any authoritative pronouncements on the matter of the disappearance or death of Netaji. Indeed no one is in such a position of authority at the time of writing and thereforespeculative logic is within the prerogative of authorial license on such a controversial and inconclusive matter. There have already been three enquires (one Committee and two Commissions) that have previously dealt with the matter of Netajis alleged death in a plane crash in Taipei, Taiwan. Much of what follows in the book is necessarily speculative. The author had a choice to simply remain silent on the issue of Netajis disappearance or indulge in some reasoned and reasonable speculation in the public interest. In the process of theorising and imagining possible scenarios aspersions may have been cast on prominent as well as lesser known national and international personalities and even nations which may eventually turn out to be unwarranted or unfair as the final truth unfolds, if it ever does. The author sincerely regrets any hurt or pain caused to any person by the contents of this short book and does not wish to impugn the integrity of any member of the Committee or Commissions that deliberated on the vexed issues covered in this book.

This book has been written in the greater public interest. The great merit in having such a publication out is to widen the scope of reasonable and informed debate. On the facts themselves I have tried to be as accurate as possible. Nonetheless certain inaccuracies may have crept in inadvertently. I alone am responsible for these. It is my belief that this publication will push us in the direction of truth and truth finding. India needs to know what happened to one of its great sons, and the only way to get at the facts and truth might be to indulge in a careful review of what we do know after considered speculation.

Finally, I should make it clear that what follows are my own opinions and views and I own full responsibility for the text which does not reflect in any way the opinion of any other person, institution or organisation.

Rajesh Talwar

26 January 2020

About the Author

Rajesh Talwar studied Negotiation at Harvard, Human Rights Law at Nottingham, and Law and Economics at Delhi University. He has worked for the United Nations on legal and justice-related issues in Somalia, Liberia, Kosovo, Afghanistan and Timor-Leste. Prior to working for the UN, he practised law and taught law at Delhi University and Jamia Millia Islamia. He is the author of more than a dozen books, many of which are available and listed at www.amazon.com/author/rajeshtalwar . In non-fiction he has most recently written Courting Injustice: The Nirbhaya Case and Its Aftermath (Hay House, 2013). In fiction his latest novel is How to Kill a Billionaire (Juggernaut Books; 2016).

SYNOPSIS

Netaji Bose, who led the Indian National Army to wage battles against the British, allegedly died in an air crash in Taipei, Taiwan soon after the Second World War came to an end. Did he really die in the air crash or was it a fabrication? This question was considered by three inquiry commissions, the last of which came to the clear conclusion that there was in fact no air crash. Each report is carefully dissected by the author, a trained lawyer and UN official.

If Bose did not in fact die in the air crash, where did he go, what happened to him, and when, where and how did he meet his end? Why did Prime Minister Nehru keep Bose-related files away from the first committee that conducted an enquiry? Why did Indias first prime minister order that surveillance be carried out on the Bose family for decades? Why did Prime Minister Morarji Desai speak of new evidence that challenged the conclusions of the first two inquiries that Bose had died in an air crash? Why did Desai subsequently fall silent? This book provides explanations on all the important questions that have plagued Indian minds for decades. The mystery behind the springing tigers disappearance is finally unlocked.

If Gandhis non-violent struggle represented the feminine spirit of ahimsa Bose and the INAs struggle represented Indian manhood in its fullest flowering. In freedom struggles across the world, some of those who fought the hardest are subsequently ignored. If we apply the necessary corrective to the history of Indian independence, the author argues, we will change Indias view of itself and its place in the world, past, present and future.

THE THREE INQUIRIES AND THEIR PRINCIPAL DRAMATIS PERSONAE

The Shah Nawaz Committee

1956 Succumbing to public pressure, Nehru finally appoints a three member Committee chaired by Shah Nawaz Khan to inquire into the alleged death/ disappearance of Bose. The Committee comes to the conclusion by a majority decision that Bose died in the air crash. Boses brother Suresh Chandra gives a sharp, dissenting opinion. The controversy continues.

Shah Nawaz Khan: Chairman of the first Committee appointed to enquire into the disappearance and possible death of Netaji. Shah Nawaz and a second member came to the conclusion that Bose had in fact died in an aircrash in Taipei.

Suresh Chandra Basu: Subhash Chandra Boses elder brother, who was also a member of the first Committee. He strongly disagreed with the majority opinion of that Committee and published his Dissentient Opinion. In his opinion his brother had not died in the alleged aircrash.

Jawaharlal Nehru: Nehru became the first prime minister of independent India. He argued vociferously that Bose had indeed died in the air crash and opposed the idea of an enquiry. He gave in eventually once civil society members in West Bengal decided that they would go ahead with a Peoples Commission. He exchanged acrimonious correspondence with Suresh Basu (see above) on the question of access to important papers and files which Basu claimed was being denied to him.

The Justice GD Khosla Commission

1970 Indira Gandhis government appoints a one-man Commission headed by Mr G.D. Khosla, Retired Chief Justice of Punjab High Court to enquire into Boses disappearance and alleged death. The Khosla Commission Inquiry commenced in 1970 and concluded in 1974. It concludes that Bose died in the air-crash.

Judge G D Khosla: Justice Khosla was appointed as a one man commission to yet again enquire into the disappearance and death of Subhash Chandra Bose in an alleged air crash. Unlike the first Committee he had the opportunity to visit Taipei in Taiwan where the air crash allegedly took place. He came to the conclusion that Bose had in fact died in the air crash and supported the conclusions of the first Committee. Soon after writing the report he published a hagiography of Indira Gandhi (a book that is now, perhaps deservedly, out of print). The controversy does not die down.