The India Gate stand-off: What did happen to Netaji?

A hologram of Subash Chandra Bose will occupy the space till the granite statue is made.

Not unexpectedly, a war of words has broken out between Netaji lovers and those not so fond of him, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that a statue of Subhas Chandra Bose would come up at India Gate. 

The announcement came on the eve of the freedom fighter’s 125th birth anniversary–and on January 23, the birthday, a hologram of the Netaji statue was inaugurated at the site. This holographic image will be replaced by a granite statue, whenever it is ready. Admirers of Netaji were ecstatic, many others were unhappy.

Nehru versus Netaji

Unfortunately, Netaji’s public image was sought to be diminished by Nehru and his acolytes after Independence. It worked too, with a section of Indians – especially those who prospered during the Nehru raj. These are the voices that have grown louder over the past two days. They have been talking about Netaji taking the help of fascist forces led by Hitler and Mussolini, and of the Japanese to fight for India’s freedom.

A section of those trying to diminish Netaji’s image realises that this is not a wise thing to do. So, they try less-obvious strategies but towards the same goal. For example, news articles have been appearing in sections of the media and even in Facebook comments. They try to convey that there was no difference in essence between Netaji and Nehru, and that Netaji too held Mahatma Gandhi in great respect. Therefore, they try to imply that the saffron forces are barking up the wrong tree in trying to project differences between Netaji and Nehru.

Read also: Republic Day celebrations to begin from Subhas Chandra Bose's birth anniversary on January 23

Whatever might be Narendra Modi’s objective in trying to raise the profile of Netaji, the fact is that in the fifties, Nehru went out of his way to erase Netaji. This is what we know from the time:

*Netaji disappeared after a plane crash in Taiwan on August 18, 1945. Most people, including the British ruling class, believed that this was a false story peddled to allow Netaji to disappear from public view. This would ease the pressure on the ruling administration to search for him.

* Netaji disappeared into Soviet Russia and gave himself up to the Soviet administration, from whom he sought help to fight and free India.

* There are files in the archives of KGB, which suggest that Stalin met with his three advisors in 1946 to discuss what is to be done with ‘Chandra Bose’ (the name by which Netaji was referred to in USSR).

* The Intelligence Bureau (IB) also recorded the gist of three broadcasts made by Netaji on shortwave 31 in December 1945 and January 1946 from a foreign soil. The summary of the transmissions are now available with the National Archives and were placed there on January 23, 2016, by Modi by de-classifying files. The summaries suggest that Netaji was aware of Indian National Army (INA) men being tried at the Red Fort. He declared that he would come to India as the head of an army and fight those who were trying his men. He believed that another World War would be fought in ten years.

Nothing more was heard about Netaji. But, it is believed that Nehru had set up the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to find out more about him. IB’s director B N Malik knew Netaji as a contemporary from Calcutta. A close confidant of Nehru who continued for a record 20 years in the top post of IB, Malik is believed to have advised and then set up a few false ‘babas’ across north and east India, each of them posing as Netaji. 

If Netaji had returned to India, he may have shaken Nehru’s gaddi (throne). 

Therefore, if ever he returned, a plan would be set in action. That is, the ‘babas’ would stand up and claim that they were the true Netaji. Thereby, confusing the general public. 

The most famous among the babas was Gumnami Baba, who lived near Ayodhya. Another was Shalumari Baba living in an ashram near Farakka in north Bengal. Shalumari Baba was exposed and ran away to Dehradun where he died. But the legend of Gumnami Baba persisted and, in recent years, a Bangla movie was made based on his life.

The final days

What happened to the actual Netaji? 

From whatever little information that trickled through, a good guess would be that Netaji fell into the bad books of Stalin and was sent to Yatusk to the infamous Gulag Archipelago. Either he perished there or was released post Stalin’s reign. Thereafter, he stayed on in Moscow after a cosmetic surgery, which helped conceal his identity. He may have been used by the Soviet leaders as an advisor on Indian affairs. 

Why did he not leave the Soviet Union and fly back to India? 

Netaji had married an East German woman who was employed as his secretary when he was sojourning in the country in the early 1930s. Apparently the woman was a Soviet spy, who went to the USSR and persuaded Netaji to stay back in the country. Such is the belief in informed circles, though there is no solid proof.