NETajI kIN WaNT pM To pUSh RUSSIa
Russia has a lot of information which it isn’t releasing, says Netaji’s grandnephew Ardhendu Bose.
Apart from serving their time inside the prison, convicts in Beur central prison near Patna are seeking penance for their crimes through an age old practice in which they pluck the leaves of ‘Kali Tulsi’ or ‘Holy Basil’ which is then offered at the feet of lord Hanuman at the famous Mahavir temple of Patna. According to prison officials, this age old practice has been going on for many years and is passed on from one group of prisoners to others once the current lot is freed, transferred to other prison or executed. The Superintendent of Beur Jail, Rupak Kumar, who joined the position early this year, said that the prisoners seeksalvation and spiritual satisfaction from this activity. “They get up every morning, take bath and then pluck Tulsi leaves from the plants that are planted inside the prison compound. Later, these leaves are cleaned and packed and delivered to Mahavir Mandir by one of our staff where they are given to the devotees as Prasad after the religious puja”, Kumar said. According to people who have lived in Patna for long, these Tulsi leaves were first collected from Bankipore prison that was situated less than 500 meters from Mahavir Mandir. However, in the 1960s the prison in Bankipore was demolished and shifted to Beur. Right now, two prisoners, Santosh Kumar and Ramashray Yadav, who are convicted in separate murder cases, are the ones who take the initiative to pluck the Tulsi leaves. Prison officials said that no one knows when this practice of plucking Tulsi leaves and sending it to Mahavir Mandir started. “The date of the building of Mahavir Mandir itself is unknown, but it was built way back in the 1900s. So it is quite possible that this tradition has been going on since then. It has been going on ever since I came to know about it 15 years ago”, said Kumar. The prison officials encourage the prisoners to become a part of this tradition as it helps the prisoners in spending their time in the prison.
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s grandnephew Ardhendu Bose has exhorted Prime Minister Narendra Modi to pressurise the Russian government to release documents related to the disappearance of Netaji in 1945. “The most convenient thing for any country is to say that it does not have any information. But our government has to pressurise them. Russia definitely has a lot of information which it isn’t releasing. Now that it has been proven that no air crash happened in that region on 18 August 1945, we need to know what really happened to Netaji. As per information available today, it is certain that Netaji went towards Russia. He was seen off in Manchuria by the Japanese. Then what happened to him?” Ardhendu Bose asked.
He talked exclusively to The Sunday Guardian after he recently signed a petition on the digital platform change.org. The petition is addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. It seeks the Russian government’s help in solving the mystery surrounding Netaji’s disappearance. It was launched by one Chandra Nath Mullick from Kolkata a few months ago.
“Bose was a rare kind of a leader who was single-minded in the pursuit of his dream to liberate his motherland. He may have collaborated with the Axis powers in his drive against the British rulers, but he was always sympathetic towards the Soviet socialist system and his disapproval of Germany’s declaration of war against the Soviet Union is well-known. Unfortunately, neither the Indian government nor the authorities of other countries, which somehow can be linked to Bose’s disappearance, have shown any interest in conducting a detailed investigation of this case so far,” he has said in the petition. Mullick could not be contacted.
“I don’t know the petitioner, but he seems to be some follower of Netaji. See, though the petition has been addressed to the Russian president, I think, something can happen only if the Indian government takes it to heart to talk to Russia about this. The government has now decided to declassify files pertaining to him. I think, by the time the last files are declassified, it will be time for next election,” he said.
Ardhendu Bose said that Japan has a lot of respect for Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, but even it had shied away from sharing information till now. “The Japanese have five files related to Netaji. Now, they have promised that they will release one file. The government should talk to them and make them release all the five files. From the information which is being made available slowly, it is clear that Japan is likely to have helped Netaji escape to Russia. A Japanese general had escorted Netaji to Manchuria. If he didn’t want to go to Russia, there was no reason for him to be in Manchuria. But Japan, too, doesn’t want to disclose its part,” he said. He also claimed that the death certificate showed in India to be that of Netaji’s, was in fact of a Japanese or Taiwanese soldier who died due to natural causes.
Bose said that his niece had recently gone to Pakistan for personal reasons, where she unsuccessfully tried to trace the family of Habibur Rehman. He was Netaji’s trusted ADC who was the sole Indian witness to the alleged death of Netaji. “The Pakistani army or the government will have to be approached to get information about Habibur Rehman. He went to Pakistan after partition. It was under his leadership that Pakistani troops had attacked Kashmir. He is no more now. But the family should be able to shed some light on the matter. My niece could not trace them.” Husain Haqqani, the former Pakistani ambassador to the US, visited India this week to release his book India vs Pakistan: Why Can’t We Just Be Friends? Advisor to four Pakistani Prime Ministers, including Benazir Bhutto, Haqqani in his speech at the book promotion event here emphasised on the need for the two countries to “change their narratives”. Haqqani highlighted how India should not get engulfed in the “reciprocity trap” by matching Pakistan’s actions with equal aggressiveness and how Pakistan needs to start seeing the circumstances of the Kashmiri people. In an exclusive interview to The Sunday Guardian, Haqqani talked about the India-Pakistan relationship from a broader perspective. Excerpts: Q. Naela Qadri Baloch, a Baloch activist, recently visited India to seek help against the atrocities of Pakistan in Balochistan and blamed your country for Balochistan’s circumstances today. Your comments. A. Balochistan is a “troubled area”. The people of Balochistan deserve better than what they are getting. Right now, Balochistan is not an area where people feel comfortable and Pakistan needs to be more concerned about the people of Balochistan. Q. Do you agree that Pakistan is responsible for Balochistan’s troubles? A. I don’t give “yes” or “no” answers. The policies of military suppression in Balochistan are not going to integrate Balochistan better into Pakistan. Q. Bilateral relations between Prime Minister Modi and Nawaz Sharif have turned cold after the initial warmth. What would you attribute this to? A. It is always good for neighbours to talk to each other and Prime Minister Modi is not the first India Prime Minister to think of settling the dispute with Pakistan and Prime Minister Sharif is not the first Pakistani Prime Minister to think of settling issues with India. Unfortunately, there are structures of conflict between both the countries about which I have written in great detail in my book. Pakistan needs to bring the chapter of terrorism to a close and needs to move forward by normalising relations first. I think the approach of trying to solve outstanding disputes first has not worked out well. At the moment, I don’t see great scope of advancement because the “terrorist structure” has not been shut down and PM Modi is disappointed on that score. PM Sharif, on the other hand, has failed to gain control over foreign policy and national security at home. So I think it will be better for both the countries to wait a little longer. Q. In your speech today, you said that people like Hafiz Saeed pretend to have the best interests of the people in Kashmir, which is not true. How do you think people like Hafiz Saeed can be uprooted? A. The easiest thing Pakistan has to do to shut down the terrorist network at home is to start arresting people who have been declared as terrorists by the United Nations. Hafiz Saeed, Masood Azhar, Jalaluddin Haqqani’s network like Siraj Haqqani etc. At the same time, Pakistan must also break down the capacity of terrorist groups to recruit and train because extremists and terrorists in Pakistan are a greater problem for Pakistan than it is for anybody else, even though our establishment thinks that they are its allies for regional influence. Q. PM Sharif has recently echoed the feelings of the separatist groups when he said that Kashmir will be won by Paki-