NEW DELHI 21-27 DECEMBER 2014 SUNDAY PAGES 16

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PUSHPESH PANT
G PARTHASARATHY
TSR SUBRAMANIAN
S VAIDHYASUBRAMANIAM
SADHGURU JAGGI VASUDEV
TISHANI DOSHI
GEETA CHANDRAN
DAS SREEDHARAN

HOLY COW! SMALL

PACKS A BIG PUNCH
FROM TEACHER,
WITH LOVE

THEY NIP THE

CANCER IN THE GUT
GIVING A NEW
LIFT TO THE FACE

THE GARDEN OF
GREEN DELIGHTS
A WINDING RIDE
IN WINTER VALLEY

RETURN OF
THE LEGENDS
A PEEK BEHIND THE
GLITTERY STARDOM

10

EXPLORERS OF
THE MINDSCAPE
WORSHIPPERS OF
A VOICE CULTURE

13

DOING DOSA
DIFFERENTLY
THE TASTE OF TRULY
ASIA IN MALAYSIA

16

IN CONVERSATION WITH
RAJKUMAR HIRANI
THROUGH THE LENS OF
STYLE AND SUBSTANCE

Te Proner Of Ykuk
Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose

Fresh evidence from declassied government les reveal that Netaji Subhas
Chandra Bose died in a Soviet prison during Stalins rule. Despite
evidence submitted before three inquiry commissions, no action was taken.
Cover-up or diplomatic intrigue? By Yatish Yadav

hen he was alive, Netaji

Subhas Chandra Bose
was an enigma. His
death in an alleged plane
crash on August 18,
1945, in Taiwan remains
a mystery wrapped in enigma. Sixty-nine
years later, declassified files on the inquiries
into Boses death indicate that he died alone in
a Soviet prison in Siberia where over 516,841
perished under Joseph Stalins rule. The
evidence, presented by a whistle-blower and
now deceased Congress MP and diplomat Dr
Satyanarayan Sinha in 1952, throws up too
many uncomfortable questions, which could
upset the established notion that Bose died
in that crash and it is his ashes that rest in
Renkoji Temple in Japan. Two inquiry reports
by Shah Nawaz Committee and one-man GD
Khosla Commission, set up in 1956 and 1970
by the Congress governments led by Jawaharlal Nehru and his daughter Indira Gandhi respectively, concluded that Bose died in a plane
crash at Taihoku airport.

The declassified documents

and exhibits in the National
Archives raise serious doubts
about the veracity of these reports. However, the third and
last report of the Mukherjee
Commission established in
1999 had trashed the probe
findings, though it doesnt
explain what exactly happened to Netaji. But the NDA
government too did not disclose the new findings which
were disowned by the UPA
government, which chose
to accept the findings of two
previous reports. Sinhas deposition before the Khosla
Commission disclosed that
Netaji was imprisoned in
cell number 45 of Yakutsk
Prison in Siberia, where over
half a million slave labourers perished; Yakutsk is the
coldest city on earth. But
mysteriously, the committee
decided not to probe Sinhas
testimony. Very few prisoners in Yakutsk survived the
brutal conditions, but a former NKVD agent, Kozlov,

who was rehabilitated later

by the Soviet government,
told Sinha about meeting
Bose in Siberia. Sinha had an
adventurous career, serving
in the Russian Army in 1932
as an interpreter; he even
fought in the battle of 193536 on the side of the Italians
in Ethiopia before he became
an aide to Nehru.
On October 17, 1970,
Sinha, then in his 60s, was
summoned before the Khosla Commission constituted
by Indira. The files running
into hundreds of pages reveal that Sinha had a trove
of information regarding
Netaji. He told the commission that Netaji did not die
in the plane crash and was
imprisoned by the Soviets
in Siberia. This was Sinhas
first appearance before the
commission and under oath,
he testified that in 1954, he
met Kozlov in Moscow, who
told him that Netaji was
lodged in Yakutsk Prison. It
appears from the proceed-

Who is Dr Satya Narayan Sinha?

orn in 1910 in Chhapra town of Bihar, Sinha

was introduced to Acharya Kripalani, Acharya Narendra Dev and Mahatma Gandhi at a
very young age, and he spent close to two years
in Sabarmati Ashram in 1924. On March 5, 1930,
Sinha sailed for Europe and stayed at Sorrento near
Naples with Maxim Gorky. Fluent in many foreign
languages, including German and Russian, Sinha
studied medicine in Vienna but ended up as staff
captain in the Soviet Army and served for two years
from April 1932 to July 1934. He served as an interpreter for six months in Siberia where he befriended many Russian and German spies. Later, Sinha

went to Ethiopia where he joined Mussolinis forces, fought the allies during 1935-36 before returning to India in the late 1936. Sinha left India again
on January 1947 and served in various countries on
the direction of Pandit Nehru. Later, he joined the
Indian Foreign Service in 1950 but resigned two
years later. He was elected as a member of the first
Lok Sabha from Bihar in 1952. Justice Mukherjee
Commission, constituted by the NDA government
in 2001, was dismayed by the sheer negligence of
the Khosla Commission which omitted several
crucial leads that Sinha provided to unravel the Netaji mystery.

ings that the commission

had received overwhelming
evidence from Sinha but
ultimately decided to ignore them.
Excerpts from the
proceedings regarding the
meeting between Kuzlov
and Subhas Chandra Bose:
Khosla Commission: I
want you to be more specific about this information
which you received. Who
gave you the information
and what were the exact
words used by him as far as
you can remember?
Sinha: Kuzlov was the
name of the man who was
connected with the training of Indians till 1934. The
same man was later treated
by Stalin as a Trotskyist
and sent to Yakutsk prison.

From there, after the war, he

had come back. I met him
in Moscow. He said that he
had seen Bose in Cell No. 45
in Yakutsk.
Commission: Did he name
Bose or did he say some important Indian?
Sinha: He knew Bose. He
had been a Soviet agent in
India in 30s. He had met
Bose in Calcutta and he knew
his residence.
British India was crawling with spies of all nationalities, notably the Russians
and Germans. The Great
Gamea term coined by
the English spy and cavalry
officer Arthur Conollywas
raging as a conflict between
the British and the Russian

Turn to Page 2

The place near Yakutsk Prison in Siberia

Worlds Coldest Prison Camp

Several camps were erected in Yakutsk by the river
Lena to lodge prisoners of war and political dissidents.
They were employed in building new shafts for coal
mines, roads, dams etc. Each camp, known as Gulag,
had 500 to 1,000 captives living with minimum facilities. The majority couldnt survive the harsh weather
and primitive living conditions, and died while building roads in this coldest city on earth.

COVER STORY

THE SUNDAY STANDARD MAGAZINE

Continued from Page 1
empires for supremacy in
Central Asia. Afghanistan
was the buffer state both
wanted to control. The British believed that the Russians, both before and after
the revolution, wanted to
annex India. Stalin had even
sent two British Communists
to India to lead the disorganised Indian Communists
to revolt against British rule,
and create a red India. Their
efforts failed and both were
captured. Naturally, many
Indian freedom fighters believed that Russia would help
them overthrow the British.
In 1940, Bose who disagreed
with Mahatma Gandhis
peaceful protest principle escaped house arrest and fled
to Russia through Peshawar,
with the help of German Intelligence agents operating
in India. Since the USSR,
on the surface, maintained
diplomatic relations with
the UK, Stalin was reluctant
to give asylum to a man the
British considered a traitor
and a subversive. However,
he helped Bose escape to
Germany from where he
reached Japan. The transfer of Bose in African waters
from a German submarine
to a Japanese sub is the only
submarine-to-submarine
transfer of any person during World War II.
DID NEHRU KNOW
BOSE WAS ALIVE?
Sinha, who was elected to
the first Lok Sabha in 1952
from Bihar, made scathing observations in Parliament indicating a cover-up
in the Netaji probe at the
top levels in the Indian
government. Born in 1910
in Bihar, Sinha had been
tasked by Nehru to report
on the political situation in
Europe in 1947. Sinha told
the commission that he got
the funds from Nehrus
personal account in The
National Herald and it was
through Nehru confidant
Rafi Ahmed Kidwai that
he received money for his
travel and investigations. In
this capacity as an informal
secret agent, he travelled to
Germany, Italy, France and
Yugoslavia before joining
the Indian Foreign Service
in 1950 and served as First
Secretary in the Indian legation in Berne, Switzerland. Sinha told the Khosla
Commission that he had
gathered further evidence
from Russian spies that
Bose was living in captivity in Russia, which he had
already informed Nehru in
1950. Sinha began probing
into Netajis disappearance
in 1949. In 1950 in Leipzig,
Germany, he had met Karl
Leonhard, a former Abwehr
spy who had served time in
Siberia, after Germany lost
the war in USSR. Leonhard
reportedly told Sinha: I
have come to know that
your leader Bose is also a
prisoner.
Sinha deposed that in
a meeting with Nehru on
April 13, 1950, he had given
the prime minister the new
information, but Nehru
was disinterested. Though
initially relations between
USSR and India were cool
after 1947, Stalin, who had
refused to meet the Indian
Ambassador to Moscow Vijayalakshmi Pandit, gave an
audience to Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, who was then
the Indian envoy. Stalin also
offered a treaty of friendship
between both countries. The
USSR then supported India
on the Kashmir issue. Nehru
visited Soviet Union in 1955
and in return Premier Nikita
Khrushchev and Defence
Minister Nikolai Bulganin
visited India in 1956. Meanwhile, Indo-US relations
had cooled and the USSR
stepped in with technological and economical aid. On
the 1962 India-China war,
the USSR blamed China
as responsible for the war.
India started buying Soviet
arms in 1963 on a large scale
when Nehru was PM.
Khosla Commission: Did
you meet him (Nehru) in
Delhi or elsewhere?
Sinha: In Delhi.
Commission: You went to
see him and told him that a
Russian had given you this

SUNDAY 21-27 DECEMBER 2014

The Confusion Over Ashes

he Shah Nawaz
Committee that
was constituted by
Nehru had concluded
that ashes preserved
at Renkoji temple was
that of Bose. However,
declassified principal
points of the committee which later formed
the basis of official
report suggest that the
three-member committee was not convinced
Renkoji Temple where the ashes are claimed to have been kept
about it. The members,
including Shah Nawaz, Netajis brother Suresh Chandra Bose and S N Maitra, opined that Renkoji was very far from the cremation site and although
there was no tampering with ashes, it cannot be definitely said that ashes
were those of Netaji. But, despite this candid admission, all three members
agreed to cover up the truth emerging out of facts.
Ashes from the crematorium to Renkoji temple is a long wayfirst to
Nishi Hongaji temple, then to Tokyo etc. There is nothing to show that
there was tampering, but to
PM Vajpayees inscription at Renkoji Temple
prove that it was definitely those
of Netaji, much more stringent
measures required by law should
have been taken and a different
and very strict procedure by way
of seals, guards etc should have
been taken. In all probability, the
ashes could be said to be those of
Netaji, stated Principal Points of
Shah Nawaz Commission drafted
on June 30, 1956.

Sinha claimed he had raised the issue with then Indian Ambassador to Soviet Union Radhakrishnan, who warned him that any
further probe in the matter may harm his (Sinhas) career.

information?
Sinha: Yes, that is on 13th
April, 1950.
Commission: What did
Pandit Nehru say to that?
Sinha: He said that he
would check up the matter.
But he said, I think, this is
American propaganda.
Commission: After that,
did you take any further
steps to enquire into the
matter?
Sinha: I did. Another talk
on this subject which I had

(Radhakrishnan) warned
me that I should not meddle in these things. I asked
him why. Then he said you
will be spoiling your career,
you will not be anywhere.
Sinha told the Khosla
Commission that he was
making the charges with
full responsibility to prove
them before the commission and before the wide
world. Sinha also said
that he did not believe that
the government wanted

THE COVER-UP
In 2006, the Justice Mukherjee Commission report concluded that Netaji did not die
in the plane crash at Taihoku
airport and the ashes in the
Japanese temple are not
his, and that in the absence
of any clinching evidence a
positive answer cannot be
given. Former Minister of
State for Home Mullappally
Ramchandran in a written

Bose with
Nehru

How Sinha was Branded

an American Agent
Sinha claimed he did not appear before the
Shah Nawaz Committee in 1956 because of
rebuke from Jawaharlal Nehru
Commission: You mean the rebuke which
he administered to you in 1951 or on some
later occasion?
Sinha: 1954
Commission: What did he say?
Sinha: There was an open debate in Parliament
after that and then he asked me in a private letter:
how many times I had been to the American Embassy and whether I was their agent or not?
Commission: Was it in connection with Netaji?
Sinha: Netaji Subhas Bose case.
with Pandit Nehru was on
16th January 1951 in Paris
where there was the ambassadors meeting.
Sinha also claimed that
he had raised the issue
with Radhakrishnan, who
warned him that any further probe in the matter
may harm his (Sinhas) career. Sinha had worked as
interpreter to Radhakrishnan while the latter was
serving in Geneva. They
had met on the sidelines of
the ambassadors conference in 1951 in Paris. He

matters regarding Bose to

come out in the public domain. He said, Nehru was
a very very strong man.
When Khrushchev came, I
was acting as an interpreter. I asked him Will you in
your next visit bring Netaji
with you? Then Russia and
India will become best of
friends.
Sinha had also told the
commission that Chinese
officials had told him
that Nehru was the only
person who could repatriate Netaji.

Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan

reply on May 7, 2013, told

Parliament that the Government of India did not
agree with the finding of Justice Mukherjee Commission
of Inquiry (JMCI) that Netaji did not die in the plane
crash. The government of
India based on the reports of
Shah Nawaz Committee and
Justice Khosla Commission
constituted on the question
of the alleged death/disappearance of Bose came to the
conclusion that Netaji died
in the plane crash on August
18, 1945.
However, Sinha had accessed classified Soviet
documents from Berlin that
concerned Netajis death but
was stopped by the government. Later he asked the
Khosla Commission whether he could quote at least
three lines from the documents, but it appears from
the proceedings that the
commission was not interested in listening to what Soviet intelligence documents
had to say about Netaji and
the topic was changed. In
1963, Sinha went to Taipei
to probe into Netajis death.
He took hundreds of photographs of the alleged crash
site and runway, making
at least 30 sorties. He also
submitted five photographs
to the Khosla Commission
marking the Taihoku runway. He made the sensational disclosure that the earlier
photographs shown to the

public featuring the crash

site could be fakes because
any photograph showing the
crash site should have the
Keelung River in the frame
which was missing. But the
commission again changed
the topic instead of probing
the new photos.
The conclusion which I
immediately came to was
that if the runway was south
of Keelung River, east-west
and in the photographs,
if the contour of the hills
come, any photographs of
the wreckage taken must
show the Keelung River in
between. There is no way out
for taking any photograph
without it, Sinha had told
the commission.
PROBE NOT GIVEN
SECRET FILES
In 1956, the Shah Nawaz
Committee refused to consider the document Allied
secret report No. 10/Misc/
INA. The document says,
Gandhi stated publicly at
the beginning of January
that he believed that Bose
was alive and in hiding, ascribing it to an inner voice.
Congressmen believe that
Gandhis inner voice is secret
information, which he had
received. This is however
a secret report, which says
Nehru received a letter from
Bose saying he was in Russia
and that he wanted to escape
to India. The information al-

leges that Gandhi and Sarat

Bose are among those who
are aware of this.
Interestingly, the contents
of the letter were omitted
from Shah Nawaz Committee report. The committee
did not find it necessary either to visit the alleged crash
site in Taihoku to make further probes that suggested
that Netaji was alive.
The File No. JMCI/ Russia/ UO Papers/ 2001 revealed that the Mukherjee
Commission tried to get in
touch with Sinhas family
members to find out if he
had left any diary or notes
pertaining to his depositions. It appears that the
commission was surprised
at the omission of Sinhas
finding in the Khosla Commission report.
Even in 2000, the Prime
Ministers Office (PMO) had
claimed privilege and told
the commission that the
documents are kept secret
for ensuring the proper functioning of the public service.
The PMO affidavit said:
These are unpublished official records, the disclosure
of which would cause injury
to the public service.
MYSTERIOUS EVENTS
AFTER AUGUST 1945
A Top Secret cipher telegram
number 3,338 dated October
20, 1945, was sent to the Secretary of State for India from

Nehru visited the USSR in 1955 and in return Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and
Defence Minister Nikolai Bulganin visited India in 1956. Meanwhile, Indo-US relations
had cooled and the USSR stepped in with technological and economical aid.

Nikita
Khrushchev
(left) and
Nikolai Bulganin
(right) with
Nehru in 1956
in India

the Home Department of the

British Government on treason trials after World War
II. It reveals that they were
not convinced about Netajis
death in the plane crash. The
British government had prepared a list of 13 civilians in
the Western countries and
12 in the Eastern countries
for capture and subsequent
prosecution. The telegram
said Bose could be tried for
collaborating with enemy if
he was still alive although
his trial would present grave
difficulties. Sinha said that
he had received notes dated
1946 from British military
missions in Berlin from
General Stewart and Major
Warren saying that Bose
did not die but was suffering at the hands of the Russians which they thought he
deserved.
Commission: Any documents? Military missions in
Berlin?
Sinha: Yes, in Major Warrens possession, there were
certain notes which said that
Japanese had once more
bluffed us and we had been
cheated. But Gen Stewart
and Maj Warren were very
happy that Bose, who was a
traitor, was being punished
by Russians.
Commission: Was his
name mentioned or it merely
said in general terms?
Sinha: In the case of Bose,
they had used words like
traitor and quisling, all
these adjectives. I can give
the number of the military
mission papers. If it is possible, the commission may
get hold of those papers.
In a debate in February
1947, Sardar Vallabhbhai
Patel said the government
was not in a position to make
any authoritative statement
on Netajis whereabouts. Patel also denied that the government had ordered any
inquiry to find out if Netaji
was dead or alive, although a
note dated August 27, 1945,
prepared that after discussions between senior British
commander Lord Wavell
and British lader A Arthur
Henderson, the Viceroy had
already initiated an inquiry
to ascertain whether it was
true that Bose had been
killed in an air accident.
As I have said, not only
myself but the House will be
very glad if it turns out to be
true that he is alive, Patel
told the Assembly.
Over time, more Netaji
documents are likely to be
declassified. Then the truth
about the national heros
mysterious disappearance
could expose the Nehru governments indifference to
the fate of an inconvenient
adversary.