Kolkata: The Press Information Bureau’s (PIB) tweet announcing August 18 as the death anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose has been welcomed by one of his grandnephews, author Ashis Ray.
Ashis Ray said that investigations by him between 1987 and 1995 had confirmed the charismatic freedom fighter’s death in a plane crash in Taipei, August 18 in 1945. The Centre in reply to an RTI in 2017 had confirmed that Netaji had died on that day, Ray said.
The PIB had made an announcement August 18 acknowledging Subhas Chandra Bose’s death on that day. “I welcome it,” Ray told this agency from London over the telephone, Wednesday.
The PIB had Sunday tweeted, “#PIB remembers the great freedom fighter Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose on his death anniversary. #Netaji #subhashchandrabose.” It was however, withdrawn after protests by a section of Subhas Chandra Bose’s family.
Ray, academician Sugata Bose and his mother Krishna Bose, both former parliamentarians, are among the family members who are of the opinion that Netaji died in the air crash.
“I had taken my findings to the then Indian Prime Minister PV Narasimha Rao, who through his then External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had attempted to bring Bose’s ashes from Tokyo (where they are allegedly preserved) to India, but without success,” Ray said.
After more evidence came into my possession I launched a website www.bosefiles.info (now withdrawn) in 2015 with the facts backed by documentary proof. I then penned ‘Laid to Rest: The Controversy Over Subhas Chandra Bose’s Death,” he said.
Ray also dismissed the demands of family members, including Chandra Kumar Bose, the West Bengal BJP vice-president, for conducting DNA tests on the remains of Netaji. “No DNA test has been carried out on Netaji’s ashes and this is unnecessary, because the evidence about his death is overwhelming,” Ray pointed out.
Ray asserted that the only person with legal and moral authority on conducting DNA tests is Subhas Chandra Bose’s only child and heir Professor Anita Bose Pfaff.
“She (Anita) not only accepts the fact of her father’s death as a result of the air accident, but wants his remains to be brought to India for a final disposal, namely immersion in the Ganga,” Ray stated.
On Chandra Boses insistence that the Centre should procure files on Netaji’s disappearance from Japan and seek Intelligence Bureau (IB) files in this connection, Ray said that those did not exist.
“There are no files relating to Subhas Chandra Bose’s death in Japan other than the interim investigation report (of 1945) and the final investigation report (of 1956) – copies of which were handed over to me and are reproduced in my book,” Ray informed.
“There are no classified Intelligence Bureau files either on the subject of Bose’s death. Everything has been declassified by the Narendra Modi government,” added Ray.
PTI