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By Vijaya Sharma
 There is reason
to believe Professor Alexander Kolsenikov
when he says that Bose might have been kept captive by Josef
Stalin
Kolsenikov had access to the secret files in the Russian
archives. The secret files revealed that in 1946, the Soviet
Cabinet had been discussing "Should Bose be kept back
in Russia". This information was passed by him to the
Forward Bloc leader Chittabasu, who was part of an Indian
Parliamentary delegation then visiting Soviet Union.
Kolsenikov goes on to add, Stalin by then had begun to collect
interned political figures of foreign countries.
Towards the end of World War II, USSR had given refuge or
support to Josep Broz Tito who created the Yugoslav republic,
Kim II Sung who took over North Korea, Ho Chi Minh who led
Vietnam's freedom struggle.
And Bose could be one of them, adds Kolsenikov.
Dr Purabi Roy, research scholar, Asiatic Society, Kolkata,
says that in the course of her research, found evidence about
certain KGB files which said that Netaji was in Russia. A
Russian Indologist Prof. Bondeverski had access to these
confidential KGB files and all it required on her part was
a letter from the External affairs ministry India to see these
files.
A letter in 1995 was sent by the Asiatic Society general
secretary Anil Sarkar to the then Prime Minister Narasimha
Rao. But, surprisingly, there was no reply.
Repeated requests to the successive governments under
H D Devegowda and I K Gujral for permission to probe the files
were met with a silence for reasons best known to the government,
says Dr Roy.
Statements emanating from India that Bose was in Russia
have never met with any official Russian denial.
In December 1945, a Lahore newspaper in Lahore, National
Herald published an article saying "Bose in Russia".
An year later, on January 7, 1946, only a brief notification
in Pravda, January, 1946 refutes the claim.
A report from Moscow to the Foreign Office, source PRO.
FO. 371/56774 - 1946. Indian Soviet relations. N 277/136/38
refers to the article in Pravda .
There is no denial of the report. The letter just mentions
"Foreign office please pass to government of India as
telegram no.1
The absence of any definite reply from the Soviet side, as
Prof Kolsenikov puts it "is a mysterious point in Soviet-Indian
relations".
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