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This week, a PIL in the Kolkata High Court sought to rekindle our most robust conspiracy theory: Netaji’s death. Is Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose dead? If yes, how and when did he die?

The Mukherjee Commission (set up by the NDA government and headed by retired Supreme Court Judge Monoj Mukherjee) had done much investigation and declared in 2005 that contrary to the official theory, Netaji had not died in a plane crash in Taipei on 18 August 1945.

It could not conclusively say when and how he did die because there was no “clinching evidence”. The report, tabled in Parliament after a curious delay of six months, was swiftly rejected by the Congress government in 2006.

Now petitioner Subhas Chandra Basu (apparently his real name) has requested further investigation into Netaji’s death, saying the Mukherjee Commission was hampered by the government’s non-cooperation and vital documents were withheld.

There is already another case in Kolkata HC challenging the Central government’s rejection of the Mukherjee Commission report. As Netaji fans we may not agree with the Commission’s finding that Bose is dead, but we cannot allow the first ever official report that clearly states that Netaji did not die in that plane crash to be rejected so promptly.

We mostly agreed with the Commission, which said

(i) Netaji did not die in the Taipei plane crash as reported;
(ii) The ashes at Tokyo’s Renkoji temple are not his;
(iii) The story of the crash was a ruse to help him escape, and the Japanese and Taiwanese governments knew it;
(iv) The Indian government suppressed a Taiwanese report which stated this in 1956;
(v) Netaji is now dead. We disagree only with the last point. Most of us believe that Netaji is alive and well and plotting a comeback to free us from corrupt governments and ideologically decrepit politicians. So what if he is 111 years old?

But some do believe that Netaji, sadly, is dead. He died in 1985 in Uttar Pradesh where he had lived as Bhagwan Gumnami Baba (literally, ‘the Baba whose name is lost’) since the 1950s.

The Baba looked amazingly like Bose, and among his few personal possessions were a pair of gold-rimmed glasses like Bose used to wear, some Bengali books, an album with photographs of Bose and his family, a pair of good German binoculars and detailed hand-drawn maps of the whole Asian region.

Apparently, the Baba had fascinating tales of Russia and of Siberian prison camps. (KGB files mention holding Bose in Russia and Siberia at least till October 1946.) He also talked of his experiences in Germany, Japan, Burma and Tibet, and his entering India secretly through Manchuria in a jeep.

It is believed that Gumnami Baba was in touch with INA members, had his own security men, and his handwriting was so similar to Bose’s that it stunned experts. Apparently, when asked about the plane crash that is supposed to have killed Netaji, the Baba said, check out the logbook — no plane took off from Taipei that day.

Justice Mukherjee’s was the first official report to confirm that Bose did not die in a plane crash as reported. So how can we allow the government to reject it outright? Of course it’s not entirely surprising, going by all these wicked rumours about how Nehru was part of a conspiracy to kill Bose, and how every Congress government has been suppressing facts to protect their own leadership. Never mind.

Fact is, we don’t really want closure on Bose’s death. Till recently, Netaji sightings were our national pastime, speculating on his possible disguises is still our passion.

All we want is the whisper of doubt, the slight flexibility to dwell upon conspiracy theories, that breathing space to be awed by mystery, to believe in miracles.

The writer is Editor, The Little Magazine.Email: sen@littlemag.com