Litfest takes a close look at Netaji mystery

KOLKATA: Netaji would have been the unchallenged Prime Minister if he had chosen to come back to India after August 1945, concluded experts at a panel discussion at the ongoing Kolkata Literature Festival, which was a part of the Kolkata book fair, on Friday.
The session, 'Coding and Decoding the Netaji Mystery', had filmmaker Shyam Benegal, TOI Hyderabad editor Kingshuk Nag, who has recently released his book 'Netaji: Living Dangerously' and Netaji researcher Purabi Roy debating the issue of his disappearance.
"Had he returned to India, he would have been its unchallenged leader because of the clear void that existed at that time. It was Netaji not Gandhi who gave that final push to India's freedom," felt Benegal.
Nag was firm that Nehru, prodded by Mountbatten, was aware that Netaji was intercepted by Stalin. He had by then turned hostile towards the idea of Netaji's provisional Azad Hind government and had imprisoned him, much to Nehru's advantage.
"Nehru did have a clue that Netaji was alive somewhere and that it was only natural that he might try to communicate with his family. That is why he tried to intercept letters of the Bose family," Nag said. He also drew the attention to the fact that after Habibur Rehman, the sole survivor of the reported air crash, met Gandhiji, the latter told reporters, 'He told me what his boss had asked him to tell me.' You can draw your own conclusions about that because Rehman's deposition before the Shahnawaz Commission does not draw the curtains to the mystery," Nag reminded. According to him, the secret lay not in the release of intelligence files in India but those that lie classified in England.
According to Roy, the crash was part of a deception plan that was carefully plotted to help Netaji escape so that he could set up the Azad Hind government. "The deposition of the two secret agents on his trail, Phoenix and Davis, should be made public. Netaji has been mentioned in secret documents time and again in the intelligence files that lie locked in these archives," claimed Roy. She reminded that between 1947 to 53, India had a 'selected' not an 'elected' Prime Minister.
"It would be foolhardy to say that at 120 years, Netaji is still alive but it is definitely true that he did not die in 1945, and could have been alive till the late 50s, mid 60s or even 80s. Saying that he was alive after that will be stupid," Nag concluded.
Benegal said that since the first lot of releases of intelligence documents did not reveal much he would eagerly wait for the next lot. "Till then, I would like to believe that Netaji just flew away and that was the metaphorical end of the greatest hero of the country." He did not want to brand Nehru as a villain simply because the latter chose to support the three members of INA who were tried.