If the Idea of India as envisaged at the time of Independence was premised on the erosion of caste identities, two developments today validate the shameful fact that not only does caste-based discrimination persist, it continues to be perpetuated, including as an instrument of state policy.
The first of these reports relates to the experience of a Dalit cook in a school in a Tamil Nadu village, who faces social ostracism from caste Hindu Vanniyar parents who are refusing to send their children for the nutritious noon meal scheme on the grounds that it is a “sin” to eat food cooked by a Dalit.
That such regressive caste-based notions of ‘untouchability’ continue to be perpetuated even 65 years after independence may seem shocking enough, but the response of the district administration was even more astounding. According to The Hindu, rather than sensitise the Vanniyars in the village and caution them on the folly of what was at its core a criminal act of discrimination, officials transferred the cook to another school on deputation. But even in her new posting, she faces a social boycott, as do six other Dalit cooks in the village.
Meanwhile, over in Delhi, the Union Cabinet put its stamp of approval on a Constitutional Amendment provision to clear the residual legal hurdles in formalising reservations for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in promotions in government jobs. Although it is packaged as an affirmative action proposal intended to uplift the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes who, as the Tamil Nadu experience illustrates, continue to face discrimination, the measure will end up accentuating and reinforcing caste identities in a regressive way.
If passed – and it surely will, given the near-unanimity across political parties to be seen to be advancing the interests of Schedule Castes and Schedule Tribes – it will be the 98th amendment to the Constitution – in only the 66th year of independence. It’s a sign of how far we’ve come from the sterling document that our founding fathers, in their infinite wisdom, had drawn up.
Like artless monkeys shredding a garland, our leaders and political parties have over the decades hacked and plucked away at the Constitution that had been drawn up by minds that were far more visionary than anything we’ve seen since. In the name of improving upon that document, they have effectively ripped it to pieces.
The supreme irony of the upcoming Constitutional amendment provision to strike down all the legal challenges in implementing and institutionalising the quotas-in-promotion enterprise is that it violates the spirit – and letter – of what everybody from BR Ambedkar and Jawaharlal Nehru downward wanted to see: the erosion of divisions along caste lines, and the winding down, over time, of all reservations.
The evolution of the reservation policy in these 65 years and the manner in which the abuse of the original intent has played out over the decades portends ill for the country. From being a mere enabling provision to confer a discretionary power on the State as a temporary expedient to uplift a small section of the socially oppressed, it has become an instrument that advances competitive casteism and institutionalises caste-based divisions, with vast numbers clamouring to claim reservations as their birthright.
What started off as a temporary provision for just Scheduled Castes has over time extended to cover Other Backward Classes, and is being sought to be extended to religions minorities as well. And successive governments have over the years been pushing to extend the provision to promotions as well. The proposed Constitutional amendment will do it for Schedule Castes and Scheduled Tribes, but you can be sure – given the precedent – that the facility will be extended to OBCs as well.
Every time the provision for quotas in promotions was struck down by the Supreme Court or other courts, successive governments have responded with alacrity to amend the Constitution – and dilute and expand the provisions of the law to drag it to the lowest common denominator. In that enterprise, virtually every political party has been complicit.
The most striking warning of what lies in store came long ago, from Nehru. Addressing the Constitutent Assembly, Nehru had said that he and the others were opposed to reservations, particularly on caste and religions considerations, but had “reluctantly” agreed to “carry on with some measure of reservation” for the Scheduled Castes, given the history of discrimination that they faced and the expectation that the reservation would be limited to just 10 years.
It was a theme he would return to over the years, with a sense of growing alarm and despondency. In June 1961, in a letter to Chief Ministers, Nehru wrote: “It is true that we are tied up with certain rules and conventions about helping the Scheduled Castes and Tribes. They deserve help, but even so I dislike any kind of reservation… I react strongly against anything which leads to inefficiency and second-rate standards.”
The notion that reservations were being extended even to promotions caused Nehru immense anguish. “It has amazed me to learn that even promotions are based on communal or caste considerations. This way lies not only folly, but disaster,” he warned, with amazing prescience.
With today’s approval for the Constitutional amendment that will overcome the repeated legal challenges that the proposal faced, India may be well on the road to “folly” and “disaster
http://www.firstpost.com/politics/quota-for-promotions-puts-india-on-road-to-folly-and-disaster-443209.html
The latest book by journalist Anuj Dhar on the mystery of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's death/disappearance points to a discouraging role by Pranab Mukherjee in resolving it, writes Vicky Nanjappa.
India's Biggest Cover-up, the just-released book authored by Anuj Dhar is expected to set the cat among the pigeons. The insight into the Subhas Chandra Bose mystery relies on official records, bulk of them still security classified in violation of democratic norms, to invalidate the air crash theory about Netaji's death.
Dhar has spent more than a decade in making sense of the vexed issue. In the course of his efforts, Dhar obtained information from the Taiwan government ruling out the alleged air crash which supposedly killed the nationalist leader. In a previous book Dhar reached this conclusion, which was later upheld by a former Supreme Court judge tasked with investigating the matter afresh.
In his new book, Dhar piles up freshly uncovered facts and insights further invalidating the air crash theory, and supporting the view that Bose escaped to the former Soviet Union with Japanese help, and painting up a most interesting "dead man" angle.
Interestingly, the book, published by the Delhi-based Vitasta Publishing run by former journalists, makes some startling claims based on over 200 documents, 90 of which are still classified.
Interestingly, it deals with a Pranab Mukherjee angle to the mystery. Anuj Dhar tells rediff.comthat when Mukherjee was the external affairs minister, the controversy about Bose had been revived with claims from the recently collapsed state of USSR that Bose was there after 1945.
Contrasting the Bose case with the tragedy of Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, Dhar claims in his book that despite there being intelligence and other reports about Bose's presence in Soviet Russia [ Images ], the Government of India [Images ] never asked the former Communist country to shed any light on the recurring rumours.
Like Bose, Raul Wallenberg was said to be in the Soviet Union after 1945, when he was reported dead. Repeated highest level approaches by the Swedish government made the Soviets to come out with one outright denial after another. But after a decade, threatened with souring of bilateral relations, the Soviets admitted Wallenberg's presence in their country as a KGB prisoner.
Dhar says, 'In 1990s a number of Indian scholars visiting Russia returned to claim that there were records about Bose in accessible intelligence and security-related archives." The "still secret" records reproduced in India's Biggest Cover-up show that the matter was addressed by the ministry of external affairs.
'RL Narayan, then a joint secretary and a future ambassador, doubted the official Russian response to an Indian approach made a little earlier that they did not have records on Bose.
'He advised in an official note still classified as "secret" that a démarche be issued to seek facts from the KGB archives. Dhar says the diplomat's recommendation was struck down after Pranab Mukherjee "saw this note and scrawled at the end that FS (then Foreign Secretary Salman Haidar) should discuss the issue with the JS (EE) 'urgently'".
'The outcome of the meeting was evident in the actions that followed, writes Dhar. No démarche was ever issued, as was recommended by Narayan. On the contrary, he started taking a hardline against the Asiatic Society scholars who were raising a demand for an access to the secret Soviet records.
"It was almost as if Narayan came under a spell of Bengal ka kala jaadu, black magic of Bengal," says Dhar, explaining the JS's change of heart.
In 1994 the ministry of external affairs, in a response to a top secret ministry of home affairs query about the Japanese government's confirmation of Bose's death by way of furnishing a proper death certificate, replied in the negative since the Japanese records were obviously fake.
I'n 1995, in deference to the advice of the Intelligence Bureau, the Union Cabinet decided not to bring the so-called ashes of Bose to India from Japan [ Images ]. But Mukherjee flew to Germany [ Images ], and according to unverifiable claim of a former MEA official, says Anuj Dhar in his book, tried to bribe Bose's Austrian wife to certify his death by giving a written approval to take the ashes to India as that of Netaji's.
Netajis' octogenarian wife Emilie Shenkel was enraged at Pranab's proposal and asked him to leave her house as she, like most of her family members, believed that Bose was in Russia after his death -- a fact glossed over by a recent book by Sugata Bose, son of former Congress MLA and Mukherjee's friend the late Sisir Bose, says Dhar.
Later, when a report misquoted Mukherjee saying that Emilie had given the permission to bring the ashes to India, she lashed out saying, 'Pranab Mukherjee was propagating an untruth for reasons best known to him and the government of India', the new book says.
'A decade later, Pranab Mukherjee was described in the Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry report as one of the seven witnesses who had testified before it in favour of the story on Bose's death.
'In an ironical twist, Pranab Mukherjee, having returned to power in 2004, then sat in judgment on the commission report along with his other Cabinet colleagues. In March 2006, when Justice Mukherjee's report saying that Bose hadn't died in 1945 and that the ashes in Japan were not his was yet to be made public, and Mukherjee was back as the external affairs minister, Sugata Bose secretly brought to Kolkata [ Images ] some human remains as that of Bose,' writes Dhar.
'Such intriguing transfer couldn't have been possible without some tacit approval of the authorities. The same year Pranab was accused of trying to scuttle the commission's inquiry and that probably led to his facing "mob fury in Kolkata" while his car was entering a hotel on June 18, 2006.
'The attackers owed allegiance to All India Forward Bloc, a leftist offshoot of Bose's Forward Bloc, which is now backing Pranab as a presidential nominee in the name of "Bengali pride",' notes Dhar.
The issue of Netaji's fate and controversy about his remaining alive until 1985 was probed by former Supreme Court Justice MK Mukherjee between 1999 and 2005, which was rejected by the United Progressive Alliance [ Images ] government with the Action Taken Report laid in Parliament stating no reasons whatsoever.
'For any government in a mature democratic polity such a public damnation over a national icon would have sprung the head of the government to issue clarification. But it was not for nothing that Narasimha Rao was likened to the Sphinx.
'A feeble counteroffensive was launched in December 1996. Researcher Joychandra Singh told the media there was nothing more to the Bose mystery other than the Taipei crash. He claimed that Russia too upheld this theory. This he attributed to a response he had received from the Russian defence ministry archives in Moscow [ Images ].
'Quite remarkable that a private citizen like Singh should have been able to elicit a direct response from the Russians, who hardly ever entertained such requests. But Singh had strong credentials. He had the tacit support of the government. He had earlier been able to procure a counterfeit death certificate for Bose issued by Dr Yoshimi in 1988.
'The MEA records show that a Russian defence ministry note verbale dated October 28, 1996, was received by the Indian embassy from the Russian foreign ministry enclosing a letter from the head of the archives in response to Singh's letter,' Dhar writes.
'There are no records with the Central Archives of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation about the catastrophe in August 1945 and death of...Bose.
'Joychandra Singh put his own spin on this to give journalists the impression that Russia upheld the Indian government-approved theory. He harped on his "12-year-old research" on the issue, which had been inspired by a communication from the Indira Gandhi [ Images ] government urging him to propagate the Taipei death story.
'Singh ran out of steam soon after, while Dr Purabi Roy continued to take the government to task alone: "If they are confident that Netaji was actually killed in a plane crash in 1945, why have they always tried to scuttle any fresh investigation? If they are clean, let them provide us access to the two archives and see what's there?"
'In 1996, she chanced to reach out to the prime minister of the Russian Federation. Viktor Chernomyrdin mooted the idea of an Indo-Russian commission to investigate the missing Indian nationals within the territory of the erstwhile USSR.
'But was anyone interested in India? RL Narayan, the joint secretary in charge of Europe East Division of the External Affairs Ministry -- JS (EE) -- made an assessment of the situation in 1996. In the note of January 12, 1996, Narayan, who had had two stints in Moscow, admitted that 'from time to time various articles have appeared in the Soviet/Russia press insinuating, though without any actual proof that Netaji in fact stayed/was incarcerated in the Soviet Union after 1945', Dhar writes.
'The note then set out to tackle the Asiatic Society's poser that "unless the ministry of external affairs of our government prevails upon the Russian authorities to allow our scholars access to KGB archives it is absolutely impossible for the scholars to pursue the matter further either of this country or of scholars of Russia".
'Explaining the backdrop, Narayan mentioned that there are broadly three kinds of archives which may be of relevance. Papers relating to the Stalinist period (KGB archives) are kept separately and have so far not been accessed by foreign and even Russian scholars, with the exception perhaps of very limited and selected scholars like the late historian Volkogonov, who has published biographies of Lenin and Stalin on this basis.
'Papers relating to the post-Stalin period fall into two categories -- governmental and Central Committee/Politburo (these are again kept separately). The Russian foreign ministry's note verbale suggests that their disclaimer about Netaji may be based essentially on perusal of these latter archives.
'With this setting in mind, Narayan opined: 'It would be unrealistic for us to expect the Russian authorities to allow our scholars to access to KGB archives. What we can do is to request the Russian authorities to conduct a search into these archives, and let us know if there is any evidence of Netaji's stay in the Soviet Union. It is recommended that we may request our ambassador in Moscow to make a suitable démarche to the Russian authorities on the above lines.'
'Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee saw this note and scrawled at the end that FS Haidar should discuss the issue with the JS (EE) "urgently".
''The details of that meeting between Haidar and Narayan are not known. Haidar goes off on TV these days talking at great length about all sort of happening in remote corners of the world, never saying a word about Bose.
'But the outcome of the meeting was evident in the actions that followed. No démarche was ever issued, as was recommended by Narayan. On the contrary, he started taking a hardline against the Asiatic Society scholars. Narayan was confronted with the problem yet again after Subhas's nephew Pradip, son of Suresh Bose, wrote to the prime minister drawing his attention to the information said to be available in Russia.
'The joint secretary now articulated in his note dated March 7, 1996, that the Asiatic Society scholars had 'unearthed no hard evidence of Netaji's stay in the Soviet Union' and yet requested the government to make a formal request to the Russians.
'Pradip Bose', he noted, 'has gone a step further and has requested (the) government of India to seek access to these files for the scholars'. Narayan opposed it tooth and nail, saying that 'no country in the world would permit access by foreign governments, let alone scholars from foreign countries, to its intelligence files. We have no evidence that such files exist; on the contrary, the Russian government has categorically told us that they have no evidence in their archives that Netaji was in the USSR after 1945. ...In the circumstances, it is felt that it would not be appropriate for Government of India to request to the Russian government to open the KGB/Presidential archives to the Asiatic Society scholars. This would amount to our disbelieving the Russian government's categorical and official statement on the subject'.
'This note was seen by Prime Minister Narasimha Rao, who issued the following instruction through his secretary: PM would like our ambassador in Moscow to make discreet enquiries at a high level to ascertain, if possible, the existence of such information in Russia; and the possible reaction of the Russian side if we were to request access. Foreign Secretary may kindly see.
'It is quite clear that the PM was well aware of the importance of a "high level" contact. But whatever the ambassador did in Moscow did not change anything. In his November 1996 note, Narayan charged the Asiatic Society scholars with wanting to access to Russian archives "essentially in order to go on a fishing expedition in search of material on Netaji" which they "have convinced themselves, exists in these archives', Dhar writes.
'Therefore, our seeking to obtain access to these classified archives on behalf of the Asiatic Society, after the Russian government has repeatedly and formally told us that they have no evidence of Netaji having been in the Soviet Union after 1945 can therefore be easily misunderstood by the Russian side.
'From the present perspective of Indo-Russian relations, such a request would serve no positive purpose, but could well have a negative impact. Narayan -- a would-be ambassador -- also tried to reason why India could not seek access to security and intelligence-related archives in Russia like the Presidential Archive, the archives of the Foreign Security Service and the Archives of the Army General Staff,' Dhar explains.
Image: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose
Vicky Nanjappa
http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2012-06-26/india/32423707_1_pranab-mukherjee-air-crash-theory-circumstantial-evidence
Pranab Mukherjee behind ‘cover-up’ on Netaji’s air-crash, alleges book
Himanshi Dhawan, TNN Jun 26, 2012, 07.11AM IST
NEW DELHI: A soon-to-be-published book claims that finance minister and UPA's presidential nominee Pranab Mukherjee was engaged in an elaborate "cover-up" on the last days of Azad Hind Fauj founder and national leader Subhas Chandra Bose.
Penned by former journalist Anuj Dhar, the book that is likely to hit the stands in July, dismisses the official version that Bose died in an air-crash inTaiwan in 1945. The book, India's Biggest Cover-Up, is based on records declassified by the US, British and Indian authorities and several documents that continue to be kept secret over 65 years after the incident.
Dhar says that Mukherjee, in his capacity as the foreign minister, went the extra mile to support the air-crash theory despite evidence negating it. Referring to an incident in 1996, Dhar says that the then joint secretary (JS) in the ministry of external affairs suggested in a secret note that India should issue a demarche to the Russian Federation that they should conduct a search for any evidence about Bose in the KGB archives.
The book says, Mukherjee saw this note and directed foreign secretary Salman Haider to meet the JS. After this meeting, the JS forgot about the demarche and became increasingly cynical and eventually noted that to seek access to the KGB archive would harm Indo-Russian relations. "Mukherjee remains India's foremost proponent of the Bose died in Taiwan theory,'' he writes.
Dhar also claims that in 1994 the MEA in response to a top secret home ministry query about the Japanese government's confirmation of Bose's death by way of furnishing a proper death certificate replied in negative since the Japanese records were obviously fake.
A decade later, Mukherjee was described in the Justice Mukherjee Commission of inquiry report as one of the seven witnesses who had testified before it in favour of the story of Bose's death. Ironically, Mukherjee returned to power in 2004, and then sat in judgment on the Commission report with his other Cabinet colleagues, rejecting the report's conclusions.
The author believes that there is enough circumstantial evidence to show that Bose was possibly in Russia after the crash, and between 1945 and 1990 the Indian government did not bother to ask the Russian authorities about it.
When asked what he believed actually happened if Bose did not die in 1945, Dhar said, "There is some evidence to suggest he died in Faizabad but the question can only be incontestably settled when government undertakes comprehensive declassification especially of those documents held by intelligence agencies."
http://www.missionnetaji.org/blog/intelligence-bureau-faked-documents-prove-netaji-dead
The Intelligence Bureau faked documents to prove Netaji dead!!!
July 11, 2012 by admin
Press release : Anuj's New book questions IB’s role in Netaji ‘death’ case
A just published book on the fate of Subhas Chandra Bose has claimed that the Intelligence Bureau doctored a British-era document to support the Nehru government’s stance on the freedom fighter’s reported death. India's biggest cover-up by former journalist Anuj Dhar has further charged that this doctored document has since been repeatedly used to shore up support in favour of the official view, lastly in a 2011 book by a grandnephew of Bose whose parents were in Congress party.
The book chronicles the controversy surrounding Netaji’s reported death and “afterlife”, and dubs the issue an officially sanctioned cover-up. To bolster his startling claims, the writer has furnished images of many rare documents in the book. Some 90 of these images are of still classified records. The book has been published by New Delhi-based Vitasta Publishing being run by former journalists. The digital version of the book is available from Amazon. [Click to read a summary of the book]
Dhar utilises a set of secret and declassified records, including those obtained under the Right to Information, to make a case against the IB. In 1955 then Director Intelligence Bureau (DIB) and the father figure of the Indian intelligence community BN Mullik despatched a dossier to the Shah Nawaz Committee. This committee had been set up under public pressure by an unwilling Jawaharlal Nehru to go into the question of Bose’s reported death following an air crash in Taiwan. The IB dossier for Shah
Nawaz Khan, a Congress party MP and former Indian National Army officer, contained a selection of reports by various investigating officers. The first report was from Phillip Finney, an assistant director with the IB who had been sent to S-E Asia along with other officers to ascertain the facts. The copy of Finney’s report dated November 1945 supplied by the IB to the committee appeared to confirm the Japanese announcement of their ally’s death in August 1945, just at a time when the British were preparing to arrest him.
The Intelligence Bureau faked documents to prove Netaji dead!!!
July 11, 2012 by admin
Press release : Anuj's New book questions IB’s role in Netaji ‘death’ case
A just published book on the fate of Subhas Chandra Bose has claimed that the Intelligence Bureau doctored a British-era document to support the Nehru government’s stance on the freedom fighter’s reported death. India's biggest cover-up by former journalist Anuj Dhar has further charged that this doctored document has since been repeatedly used to shore up support in favour of the official view, lastly in a 2011 book by a grandnephew of Bose whose parents were in Congress party.
The book chronicles the controversy surrounding Netaji’s reported death and “afterlife”, and dubs the issue an officially sanctioned cover-up. To bolster his startling claims, the writer has furnished images of many rare documents in the book. Some 90 of these images are of still classified records. The book has been published by New Delhi-based Vitasta Publishing being run by former journalists. The digital version of the book is available from Amazon. [Click to read a summary of the book]
Dhar utilises a set of secret and declassified records, including those obtained under the Right to Information, to make a case against the IB. In 1955 then Director Intelligence Bureau (DIB) and the father figure of the Indian intelligence community BN Mullik despatched a dossier to the Shah Nawaz Committee. This committee had been set up under public pressure by an unwilling Jawaharlal Nehru to go into the question of Bose’s reported death following an air crash in Taiwan. The IB dossier for Shah
Nawaz Khan, a Congress party MP and former Indian National Army officer, contained a selection of reports by various investigating officers. The first report was from Phillip Finney, an assistant director with the IB who had been sent to S-E Asia along with other officers to ascertain the facts. The copy of Finney’s report dated November 1945 supplied by the IB to the committee appeared to confirm the Japanese announcement of their ally’s death in August 1945, just at a time when the British were preparing to arrest him.
Dhar obtained this report in 2007 after he and his friends scored a partial victory against the Ministry of Home Affairs in a long-drawn RTI battle. [Click to read Hindustan Times story]
Both the Shah Nawaz Committee and Khosla Commission used Finney’s report to claim that the inquiries by the British officers had concluded that the Japanese announcement of Bose’s death was correct. The same line was carried on by Prof Sugata Bose in his much hyped book His Majesty’s opponent in which he asserted that Finney had “reached definite conclusion” about his granduncle’s death. Prof Bose is the son of late Dr Sisir Kumar Bose, a Congress party MLA and a friend of President-designate Pranab Mukherjee. [Click to read the Times of India story about Pranab Mukherjee’s role in the matter]
A scrutiny of the document by Dhar however revealed that Finney’s report in the IB dossier [accessed under RTI in 2007] had been censored to expunge its last three and the most crucial paragraphs. Dhar located a complete copy of the same report in a declassified Ministry of Defence file at the National Archives in New Delhi.
A plain reading of the portion removed from the report given to Shah Nawaz showed that Finney was actually not sure of Bose’s death. “That’s why he and other officers continued to inquire into the matter for many more months afterwards,” says Dhar, who has quoted from several post-November 1945 reports in his book. [Click to read the relevant chapter “Bose mystery begins” here]
“Whoever tempered with this record did so with the intention of conforming to the government view about Netaji’s death,” he alleges.
Taking his charge of “cover-up” further, Dhar claims in the book that “serving and retired intelligence officials appearing before Shah Nawaz and Khosla bolstered the impression created by the Finney’s doctored report with their misleading statements”. He accuses Mullik of lying on oath when he was summoned before Khosla Commission as a witness in 1970. Mullik practically headed the entire Indian intelligence apparatus from 1948 to 1968. Today, the heads of IB and R&AW (the foreign intelligence agency created out of IB in 1968) change in every two years or so. Commenting on the record of his
deposition before the commission that he accessed using RTI, Dhar writes that it gives one an “impression as if Mullik had been living in a cave all the while the Bose mystery was raging in India”.
Interestingly, during his cross-examination Mullik was repeatedly asked whether or not the IB had snooped on Shaulmari baba, a hermit alternatively described as Netaji in disguise and a “plant” by the Intelligence Bureau. Every time he was put the question, Mullik replied that the Government never asked the IB to track Shaulmari baba and nor did the agency did that on its own as the issue “did not concern national security”.
“Anything concerning the security of India would bring the Intelligence Bureau into picture,” Mullik had said on record.
But in his book Dhar has reproduced formerly Top Secret records establishing that as DIB Mullick personally supplied information to Prime Minister Nehru on Shaulmari baba.
India’s biggest cover-up also appends still classified IB records showing the agency’s unusual interest in Shaulmari baba—who was certainly not Bose according to Dhar— many years after the controversy about his real identity had petered out.
The saga of Netaji continues - his biography is read by millions Indian households as a part of children's awakening of patriotism. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose - His Majesty's Opponent- the Indian Freedom Fighter who fought the colonial rules tooth and nail, Gandhiji's Patriot of patriots. Netaji's life's abrupt end shrouded with dubious plane crash and Govt of India's setting up of three Enquiry Commissions still not able to resolve the mystery. Rather, the Truth seekers and researchers on Netaji are increasingly getting a sixth sense feeling that a distinct quarter in the corridor of central power since the Nehru days are desperate to hide certain very serious facts from the people of this country.
The feeling and belief that has grown stronger with each passing year since 1945 is that World War Allied forces’ governments and the Government of India( even after change of guards) has continued to act and behave consistently in a surprised uniformity of attitude despite the change of guard at the centre – a government of the own people has behaved so strangely over the years and left a lot of foot prints to make a man of common intelligence wonder – what has gone wrong with these rulers at the central corridor of power ?
Why people of India has to take selective pain-staking individual pursuits in foreign archives of Russia, seek information through a legal process in American secret files, and the Government of India snores and look the other way!
What has gone wrong with these rulers at the central corridor of power? While the Supreme Court Judge appointed by NDA though only on the basis of one High Court directive and the judge concludes with painstaking facts that Netaji never did die in an air crash. And as people see, this ruling class of UPA whose central party is Indian national Congress, has again played the bad man through the rule of law. All the loop holes of law UPA would exploit to ensure that Netaji era is blacked out and no new facts are established. As law says, report of no Commission is binding but is of advisory capacity. So, what has gone wrong with these rulers at the central corridor of power? Noting has gone wrong. They have stuck to their party’s dictates as kept and carried through lips since Nehru.
This is the saddest part of Indian modern history of political science. People and the government are poles apart – Government has been trying to hoodwink the people. But in a era of blogs, net and border less societies, news and information spread so fast and truth are conveyed in a matter of click and this blog - net -email is now the crusader not only against the anti-people government but against the media of PAID NEWS.
I was surprised and happy to see the warmth of love and the desire in the people’s heart across all corners of India to give a proper burial of doubt about the Netaji saga – its last question mark “1897 - ? “
Now contrast this to a large media ruled and reigned by the corrupt political class – without naming them, I can assure that the first seeds of divide in a country are sown by the media – they would explain each issue related to Netaji with a prefix adjective “Bengali” and the infection spreads. When two doyens of India died in quick succession this year leaving behind lacs of fans and admirers across India and world in a spell of shock, the media reported the first breaking news story as ….”Assaam’s Bhupen Hazarika
What has gone wrong with these rulers and their acting hands of power – some visible some invisible? I have a small ten point list. I, as a citizen of India, needs the answer from the current ruling power – the same power that have had scuttled each and every effort of Netaji and his legend Azad Hind Fauji from living a life of respect and recognition.
My Ten Questions to Government of India on the auspicious occasion of Netaji’s birth anniversary falling on 23rd January
1. What happened with the INA Treasures and its declassified contents during Nehru era?
2. Why Nehru felt the need to inform British Premier Atlee about Netaji’s presence in Russia – under what understanding and agreement, Govt of India informed?
3. Why Pranab Mukherji, Central Minister of UPA-I had visited Netaji’s wife abroad in 2008 asking her to accept the ashes of Netaji kept at Ramoji Temple, Japan while now it is confirmed to Government as per Justice Mukerjee Commission report and other foreign declassified reports and reports, reflections of various witnesses and a few path breaking research abroad that the ashes at ramoji temple was not of Netaji and was fake, Will Government of India make official announcement rectifying its record on the basis of truth revealed and show its respect and honour to son of the soil ?
4. Why Nehru’s and Government of India’s relation suddenly climaxed from 1953 onwards after change of guards in Russia. Was there a secret swap deal with Krushchev involving Netaji, since Russian archive records hints about Netaji alive in Russia in 1953.
5. The first commission formed by Govt of India to quell people’s unrelenting demand inside parliament and outside led to Nehru announcing a Commission of Enquiry. Why this report was accepted by GoI despite the report was not signed by one of the commission member who did not agree to the content of the report. Why a report was accepted without visit and enquiry to the crash site by commission members? The excuse of not having diplomatic contact with Taiwan, how long the GoI would continue to site the same argument as now, when a new commission has visited and cross examined the witnesses, the skeletons of lie has fallen from the cupboard. Will GoI consider findings of all the three commissions together and make its stand clear before people of this country whose emotions and anxieties they are deemed to represent?
6. On a plain reading of all the commissions efforts, why it gives a crystal clear signal that those sitting in central government did not offer the fullest cooperation and at many critical junctures created obstacles for further evidence gathering
7. Why Russian Research Scholar Purabi Roy who went on her own and accessed Russian archives and Russian connections and was able to open up some ground breaking clues had to return empty handed with sudden cold stand of Russian government to part with the documents – was it at the behest of Government of India, as is believed in the wide circle of truth seekers?
8. Why Government of India has consistently played the spoil sport as far as collecting the memorial items for the golden trails of INA, just to site a few – the recent harassment of a INA fauj waiting to handover two revolvers used by Netaji in Singapore
9. While INA soldiers were court marshalled at Red Fort in 1946 and INC non-violent followers including Nehru fought and ensured for their unconditional release, but there are continued harassment of INA members for support in rehabilitation, in getting pension, in getting recognition and in getting admitted into armed forces of free India – why this discrimination and apathy against INA soldiers ?
10. , While a group of Netaji truth seekers including Anuj Dhar, ex-journalist of reputed news media filed a request to CIC under RTI and wanted to bring all classified files and records related to Netaji be declassified and brought to the knowledge of people of this country, why GoI refused to deliver on the pretext that disclosure would lead to riots in some states – an utter lie. When would the GoI come out clean on classified documents?
We , the truth seekers would wait for ages till we reach to the black hole that sucking the light off all facts and figures and events related to one of the untainted purest of the pure soul Indians are proud of - the patriot of patriot, as Gandhiji called him and Deshnayak as Tagore gave him the ornamental title.
Some may ask, what the hake of it, to do spends people's many to just find a dead corpse's expiry date. The other day I found a sad image hosted by a careerist professional - the images of Netaji, Bhagat Singh, Shivaji, Rana Pratap, Kirti Azad;
and asking his friends Who are they?
Another Indian pro gave a painfully lewd comment - all wud luv Shivaji be born in neighbour's home.
The third fb friend joined - my children wud know only about SRK, Katrina, Karena or Salman!
This above live discussion is just indicative of the decay and rot set into the educated class of Indian society. They have become greedy, hedonist and expert in palm greasing. Sacrifice for nation is a foreign word of unknown variety.The political and social agents who governed for sixty five years and shaped the society cannot now shirk responsibility by pointing fingers at other short lived governments. But my worry is, a country who teaches its children wrong history and fail to honour its freedom fighter getting the rightful place in history, is going to doom. A nation that do not honour its heroes dies.That is inevitable unless the people make a course correction through ballot.Indian people's dilemma is to remove a thief and replace with a superior and more cruel and more religiously fanatic thief? But let the alarm bells ring!! Jai Hind!
http://indian-writer.blogspot.com/2012/01/netaji-ten-truth-seeking-questions-to.html
