Netaji's ashes had come to India: Nehru's office

An RTI application seeking response to a letter from India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru stating that ashes of Bose was received has put the Ministry of External Affairs in a quandary, reports Chetan Chauhan.

Updated on: Jul 28, 2007, 22:14:38 IST

Hindustan Times | By Chetan Chauhan, New Delhi

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An RTI application seeking response to a letter from India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru stating that ashes of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was received has put the Ministry of External Affairs in a quandary.

The Central Information Commission, in its recent order, found the new evidence enough to open up an altogether new line of inquiry.

Anuj Dhar, a journalist and an ardent researcher into the disappearance of Netaji, had recalled a note written dated December 2, 1954, by MO Mathai, private secretary to Nehru stating that a small amount of Rs 200 was received by the then Minister of External Affairs from Indian embassy in Tokyo along with the ashes and other remains of the late Subhash Chandra Bose. The money is being kept in the External Affairs ministry, the note, written by Mathai to then Joint Secretary, Administration Prem Krishen, said.

The note formed basis of Dhar's RTI application with the External Affairs ministry. He sought to know whether ashes of Bose were disposed off after being received by then External Affairs Minister, presumably by then Prime Miniter Nehru. He also wanted to know whether Bose's family and public were informed about the receipt of the ashes. Dhar also asked about the present whereabouts of his ashes or whether they were sent back to Japan.

The ministry had no specific replies to Dhar's questions. Instead, it said that the ministry has no records with them on the matter and therefore, they cannot proceed further with the RTI application. The ministry reiterated that it was a common knowledge today that the ashes and the remains of Netaji Bose are in the Renkoki Temple in Tokyo, while stating that a detailed response on his ashes was submitted with Justice Mukerjee Commission of Inquiry in November 2005. The inquiry committee submitted its report to Parliament last year.

To this, the Information Commissioner OP Kejriwal observed that "one can hope that some serious researcher will look into one of the greatest mystery of modern India" and will arrive at a definite conclusion.

The new revelation also surprised the Commission, which said, "one look at the note emanating from PM's secretariat would seem to open up an altogether new line of inquiry with the implication that Netaji ashes and other remains were brought back to the country by the late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru". And, said, the "mystery deepens".

ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Chetan Chauhan
Chetan Chauhan is the National Affairs Editor looking into all aspects of news and features from across India. A Chevening scholar with over three decades of experience in reporting and news management, Chetan has extensively covered all important aspects of the social sector, political economy, environment and climate change nationally and internationally. He did a journalism course at the Reuters Institute of Journalism in Oxford and Digital Media training at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. He started as a reporter with The Statesman in 1996 and joined the Hindustan Times in 2000 in the metro bureau covering environment, crime and Delhi politics. He covered hot local news, from the Jessica Lal murder case to the rebellion of Delhi Congress MLAs against then Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, to the replacement of toxic vehicle fuel with cleaner compressed natural gas (CNG) in the national capital. Some of his stories on air pollution became part of the Supreme Court’s landmark MC Mehta versus Government of India case in the National Capital Region (NCR), forcing the government to take corrective measures. As part of the national political bureau since 2004, he covered important central sectors such as environment, education, social justice, labour, rural development, water resources, renewable energy, agriculture, broadcasting and the Planning Commission for more than a decade producing several exclusive and investigative breaking stories. His specialisation is the environment, having covered at least a dozen United Nations global conferences on climate change, biodiversity and wildlife including climate summits in Paris, Copenhagen and Bali. He also covered India’s two five-year plans ---11th and 12th and reported on drafting and execution of right based laws such as Right to Education, Right to Information and rural job guarantee law, MG-NREGA, now being introduced in new format as VG-RAM-G Act. He has in-depth knowledge of social sector issues. He was one of the first to report on tigers vanishing from Sariska and Panna wildlife reserves in 2004 and 2008, respectively, leading to the setting up of the National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) and the introduction of stringent penal provisions for poaching. He has written extensively on the rising human-animal conflict in India and the degradation of India’s biodiversity hotspots because of mining and other activities. Since 2004, Chetan has covered Parliament comprehensively and participated in training on the nuanced coverage of Parliament proceedings. He has travelled extensively across India to cover national and provincial elections since 1998, especially in the Hindi heartland states, considered India’s road to power. He writes a regular column for Hindustan Times, Ecostani, on important national politics, economy, Himalayan ecology and environmental issues. His other responsibilities include providing inputs for edits and edit page articles for the publication, apart from managing news flow from across India.Read More

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