|
(This statement was given to hindustantimes.com by Surya
Kumar Bose, grand-nephew of Subhas Chandra Bose. He is currently
in Hamburg, Gemany. He has lived in Germany since 1972)
 
Mrs.Emilie Schenkl-Bose, wife of Subhas Chandra Bose and my
great-aunt had told me in January 1973 that Mr. Raimund Schnabel,
a German journalist who had settled down in East Berlin after
the World War II had told her in early 1950 that he had been
informed that Netaji was in the Soviet Union after 1945. Unfortunately,
Mr. Schnabel is no longer alive.
Between November 1972 when I came to Germany and March 1996
when Mrs. Schenkl-Bose passed away, she told me on various
occasions that she did not believe in the alleged plane crash
in Taihoku and consequently did not accept the so-called "ashes"
in the Renkoji Temple as Netaji's remains.
In 1993, Prof. Bhairab Chandra Bhattacharya of Princeton
University, USA came across a letter of Khurshed Naoroji,
written to Prof. Louis Fischer on behalf of Mahatma Gandhi.
He had sent a photocopy of this letter to my father Amiya
Nath Bose and also to Prof. Samar Guha. I have a copy of the
same.
This letter was kept open while the rest of the correspondence
was kept sealed till January 2000.
I quote below a few lines from that letter dated 22.07.1946
(pages 4 and 5):
".....The Indian Army (not the Indian National Army)
is no longer of the same temper as it was in the first world
war. Besides the disaffection amongst the Indian officers
& the rank & file, a revolutionary group has been
working amongst them - they are pro -Russian. ...At heart
the Indian Army is sympathetic with the Indian National Army.
If Bose comes with the help of Russia neither Gandhiji nor
the Congress will be able to reason with the country ..."
This letter raises interesting questions as regards the information
Gandhi and Khurshed Naoroji may have had on Bose's fate at
the time the letter was written. It is therefore advisable
to view the rest of the correspondence as well as the personal
diaries of Louis Fischer.
Surya Kumar Bose
Heinrich-Mueller-Stieg 19
22041 Hamburg, Germany
|
