Indians knew no commercial trading until the advent of the Portuguese on the western coasts of a land solely ruled by the kings. What began as "just trading" soon turned into colonization. Territorial aggression grew, which demanded an administration. With it dawned a concept of a 'responsible government'. Throughout our history, energy was channelized solely for one thing. To frame an Indian government. A democratic government from the people, by the people, for the people. On course our leaders segregated into two parties within themselves; moderates who believed in long term goals and extremists who believed in short term goals with instant results. They always resolved into riots and confused structure of executing various tasks, a total chaos.
Somewhere along the line goals were abandoned. People lost faith in the leaders following extremism. Many unsung heroes, who ultimately paid the price with their lives, had an unfinished story. One such unsung hero is our very own Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. Everyone knows that Netaji was an important personality, participated in many freedom movements, lead many ventures, but his complete work is just not known. His last whereabouts were heard somewhere on a foreign land. But it was unclear is to why? Many questions lures around Netaji's disappearance. One aspect was clear. He wanted to spread the notion of independence globally. He wanted the foreign intervention and believed only if India has good fireworks, imported goods, only then India can achieve its freedom. He thought of it as the only way to compete with a developed nation as Britain. With its pursue, Netaji also vanished away without any traces. Many sources alleged that Bose had died in a plane crash. But again it had lot of controversies surrounding it. Hence to conclude decisively, a commission was set up to rule out possibilities of what did not happen during the era dating mid august 1945. What were the facts and facets surrounding the mysterious death of Bose in the plane crash on 18 august 1945.
The first commission set up was Shah Nawaz Committed appointed by Jawaharlal Nehru in 1956- a three member committee headed by Shah Nawaz Khan, a parliament member who served formerly as a colonel in the Indian navy. It also had Suresh Bose, Subhash Chandra Bose's elder brother as its member. The purpose of the commission was to understand certain aspects. Whether Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose is dead or alive? If so., what were his whereabouts? If he died, did he die in the plane crash as conspiracy says? Whether the ashes in the Japanese temple is of Netaji?. People were questioned in different ways about the crash. People included medical personnel who claimed they treated Bose, people who said they were on the very plane with Bose during the crash. But then stories grew in different dimensions as time passed by with questions. Major evidences were not discussed with Suresh due to which the commission had to falsely conclude many aspects. It met with an abrupt end.
The next commission set up was Khosla committee created by the government of Indira Gandhi in the year 1970.-a one man committee G.D.Khosla a retired chief justice of the Punjab High court. This too ended abruptly after four years. In the report submitted, it said that no hard evidence was found in favour of Netaji's death.
In 1999 following a court order Mukherjee Commission was set up. A one man commission again and Mukherjee a retired Supreme Court judge was asked to probe into Bose's death. In a report submitted to the government in 2015 he ruled out possibilities of the ashes found in the Renkoji temple being Bose's. The report was rejected without substantial reason. It also received mixed responses.
The question however remained. What exactly happened to this nationalist leader? Why has it been such a conspiracy that it is not resting on a solid ground. Bose was a leader who took part actively in the political animosity in every sense. He was a leader who believed and involved the youth in the military power. He also met and conversed with leading military bureaucrats. There is a lot of mystery surrounding his death. There are many classified files reported, not allowed to be public. Pre-conceived notion preludes the controversy as always. So to solve all of this the government must order a commission under the guidance of a sitting judge of the supreme court. A special investigating team(SIT), should be given access to declassify the many classified files under the central government. SIT would consist of people from different fields allowing the coverage of different information in wider perspective.
History cannot come alive to tell the story. But history is the version of the past events that people have decided to agree upon. And this "mysterious disappearance" is something that is not agreed upon. We live in an era of advanced technology. On analysing, cross examining and critical examination of the past facts may perhaps lead to an 'agreed' upon conclusion. The other side of the coin is also on how transparently the probing would carry on. It should be free of bias, it should be done as a matter of national interest; in order to unravel what is hidden, if necessary, must be given access to take the matter at an international platform to elicit crucial data. So on the due course of unravelling the mystery of our leaders fate, yields a positive result as expected from the above said, then the very crown of history that we believe is our solid past, will find privilege in welcoming one of its lost gem.
Sanjana.Fernandes
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