September 16th, 1985 - a mysterious Swamiji "Gumnami Baba" aka "Bhagwanji" died in Faizabad, UP at the age of 88. His followers (many of them ex-INA and hard-core Netaji loyalists) had for long claimed that he was Netaji himself - living incognito in the land of his birth.
The Government of India (GoI) that had always claimed that Netaji died in in an air-crash in Taiwan on 18th August 1945 showed undue haste in arriving at Bhagwanji's residence, locked and put away 2673 of his personal effects in 23 boxes in the Faizabad District Treasury where they lie till today.
Bose mystery investigator and journalist Anuj Dhar who submitted some of the writing samples from Bhagwanji's personal effects was told by India's most feted handwriting analysis expert -- former Additional Director of the National Institute of Criminology and Forensic Science, Dr B. Lal that the handwritings of Bhagwanji and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose did match. Dr. Lal supported his claims with his trademark thoroughness by providing a solid analysis backed by visual evidence. The Government-appointed handwriting experts (trained by Dr. Lal himself) rejected their mentor's report with a report that lacked both incisive analysis and credible evidence. They Government-appointed experts were later pulled up by the Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry, the third and the last commission to probe the disappearance of Netaji, for their shoddy work.
Was Bhagwanji Netaji?
We may know the truth if the GoI declassifies 33 files it still is unwilling to make public 67 years after Netaji's alleged death.
For more, read Anuj Dhar's India's Biggest Cover-up, a brilliant piece of investigative journalism on Netaji's disappearance.
Let the truth prevail!
A profile image two inches-by-two in a school textbook. Round-face. Round-rimmed spectacles. Khakhi garrison cap. Looking into the far distance. That is the image our minds invoke on hearing the name Subhas Chandra Bose. An ICS officer in the His Majesty's British Empire turned revolutionary. Twice the president of the grand old party of India - the Indian National Congress. The founder of the Forward Bloc. The civilian who became a general. The first leader of the Azad Hind Government, in exile. The man who promised us freedom and asked us to pledge our blood for the cause. The man who raised an army to march against the British Indian Empire. Axis partner and war criminal, for the victorious WWII Allies. Simply, the most selfless patriot of modern India.
Yet Netaji’s life was largely a mystery. A mystery that began with his escaping from British custody in 1941 and compounded by his disappearance during the final days of the Japanese surrender during WWII. The government of India led by Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru bought the Japanese version of Netaji's death in a Taiwan air crash and adopted that as the establishment's version. Successive governments and two commissions of enquiry toed the Nehru line.
Anuj Dhar in this brilliantly pieced together masterpiece of investigative journalism convincingly blasts the "air crash theory" to smithereens in the first 20 pages and goes on to strengthen his case by following other credible leads on Netaji's escape via Manchuria to Stanlinist Soviet Russia, his possible return to India and life as "Bhagwanji" in Faizabad, UP (until his death in September 1985), the Government's confiscation and sealing of Bhagwanji's personal effects, their reluctance to release at least 33 classified Netaji files, and their collusion with Netaji's "aides-gone-rogue" (Shah Nawaz Khan, Munga Ramamurthy, SA Iyer et al) to perpetuate the death of a man who cheated it.
Anuj backs-up all his statements and conclusions with images of de-classified documents obtained via the Right to Information (RTI) Act of India, the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) of USA and UK, and documents obtained from other countries (such as Japan and Russia).
For lovers of our history and Netaji, this book is a must-read and an eye-opener. Buy it, read it, speak about it to others. That’s the best respect we can pay to India’s greatest patriot.
