Was Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose killed in an air crash in Taiwan in August, 1945? Or did he die in Russia? Or did he live an anonymous life as a “gumnami baba” till his subsequent death? These are some of the questions which will figure in a rally proposed at Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh on his birth anniversary on January 23.
The rally will be held under the aegis of “Netaji Mission.” Akhilesh Kumar Singh, Rae Bareli Sadar MLA and organiser of the proposed rally, said the fate of Netaji was a burning question for Indians. “Did he die in an air crash, or in Russia, or live a life of a ‘gumnami baba’?” Mr. Singh wondered. He demanded that the relevant documents be declassified by the Government of India, adding that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should talk to the Russian President on the subject of Netaji’s mysterious death. “If the Russian government were to give us in writing that Subhash Bose died in Russia, we will believe it to be true,” the MLA said.
Mr. Singh, who is the leader of the Peace Party’s legislative wing in the Uttar Pradesh Assembly, said the agitation would begin from Rae Bareli on January 23. “Subsequent rallies would be held in Mumbai, Agra and Odisha by the Netaji Mission,” he told journalists here on Saturday.
PM’s assurance
He said the Rae Bareli rally would seek to remind the Prime Minister of the assurances he had given about 10 months ago to members of Netaji’s family who had submitted a memorandum to him. Mr. Singh accused the BJP government at the Centre of dilly-dallying on the issue though it was raised in Parliament, by Vaiko in Tamil Nadu and by Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in Odisha.
Accusing the successive Congress regimes at the Centre of seeking to bury the issue, the Peace Party MLA said the files were not declassified by the Congress government. Mr. Singh alleged that former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru had misled the country with the theory that “Netaji” had died in an air crash in Taiwan on August 18, 1945. Later, the Congress said he had died in Russia, the MLA added.
