![]() Subhas Chandra Bose Calcutta, Sept. 21: A page in the Netaji files declassified last week contains unverified claims that a manuscript of Subhas Chandra Bose's autobiography conclusively proved that he did not die in a plane crash and that he married a Czech lady with whom he had a daughter named "Nima". Sugata Bose, the historian and a relative of Netaji, dismissed the claim about the relationship as a "cock-and-bull story". Another scholar said the special branch official who drafted the note might have mixed up the nationalities and the name of the child. Emilie Schenkl, with whom Netaji had a daughter called Anita, was from Austria, which borders the erstwhile Czechoslovakia. The scholar pointed to the phonetic similarities between "Anita" and "Nima". The claim is made on Page 198 of File 43, labelled secret and dated May 12, 1948. It was forwarded by the deputy commissioner of the Calcutta police special branch to the deputy inspector-general of the intelligence branch (CID) and the director of the Intelligence Bureau (Union home ministry). The quotes below are being reproduced verbatim. The report says: "It is learnt that Aurobinda Bose, during his last visit to Prague in connection with the World Students' Conference in 1947, became the guest of a Czeck lady who supplied him three parts of manuscript autobiography of Subhas Ch. Bose; the last part contained his observations regarding the Cripps Mission etc." (Aurobindo Bose, the son of Netaji's brother Suresh Chandra Bose, died childless in the 1990s. The Cripps Mission was a 1942 attempt by the British Indian government to secure full cooperation from India for the British war efforts in World War II in exchange for the promise of full self-government after the war.) "This lady also gave Aurobinda a writing case of Subhas Chandra Bose along with some other small articles of personal use of him. This lady instructed Aurobinda to publish the first two parts of the autobiography of Subhas Bose and not to publish now the last one which contained matters which would conclusively prove that Subhas Bose had not died in the plane crash in which he was said to have been seriously injured and subsequently died in a Japanese Hospital," the report said. "It is further learnt that Subhas Bose married this Czeck lady during his European visit during the last war and he had got a daughter by name 'Nima' by this lady. It is also said that thirty pounds of food-stuff are sent to this lady every month from Bombay," the report added. Netaji had visited Czechoslovakia (now the Czech Republic and Slovakia) more than once between 1933 and 1938, according to an overview by the Indian embassy at Prague (in the Czech Republic) on bilateral relations. "The Indian leader, who visited Czechoslovakia the most times between 1933 and 1938 was Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. He founded the Indo-Czech Association in Prague in 1934 and met Edvard Benes several times as foreign minister and President," said the embassy statement. Sugata Bose, the Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History at Harvard, said he had never heard of something "so absurd" in his life. "What Czech lady? What daughter? This is an absolute cock-and-bull story. I've never even heard of anything so absurd in my life, as a historian and as a member of the family," Sugata Bose said from Cambridge, Massachusetts, this evening. "This is from 1948, you say. By that time, the truth about his Austrian wife and daughter was already well known." "This is why one should not base history on reports of special branch informers. This is why one needs the trained eyes of a historian to go through such files before forming an opinion or arriving at an inference.... This, quite frankly, is laughable," he said. Another historian, who spoke of the possibility of a mix-up "in all likelihood", said: "An informer of the Calcutta police special branch in those days could have mixed up Czechoslovakia and Austria. The name of Netaji's daughter is Anita (Bose Pfaff). Nima isn't too far off. There could have been some confusion there too. It's quite possible that this report was about Emilie and Anita."
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1150922/jsp/frontpage/story_43906.jsp#.VgDG6dyqqko 'A chapter' with Indira | | Our Special Correspondent |
New Delhi, Sept. 21: From the Boses to the Nehru-Gandhis, this is the season of mouldy manuscripts that apparently hold salacious secrets.
T.V. Rajeswar, the former Intelligence Bureau director who had also served as Bengal governor, has disclosed that he had received "a chapter" from "Mathai's book" and had handed it over to Indira Gandhi in 1981.
"Mathai's book" is a reference to one of the most speculated about "chapters" (literally) in independent India. Mathai was M.O. Mathai, Jawaharlal Nehru's private secretary who wrote Reminiscences of the Nehru Age that recounted his years with India's first Prime Minister.
The book, published in 1978, left tongues wagging in the country - not because of what it revealed but because of what it purportedly concealed.
One chapter (29) apparently did not make it to the book. A note by the publisher, Narendra Kumar, on Page 153 had said: "This chapter on an intensely personal experience of the author's, written without inhibition in the D.H. Lawrence style, has been withdrawn by the author at the last moment." Narendra Kumar eventually said the sentence was a "teaser" and there was no such chapter.
It has been suspected that such a chapter did exist. Katherine Frank, Indira's biographer, had written about a missing chapter in which Mathai had recounted a "12-year affair with Indira Gandhi". The chapter was titled "SHE", according to Frank, and it was killed before publication by Mathai himself.
Now, 34 years after handing over the chapter to Indira, Rajeswar has not confirmed whether it indeed was "SHE". But his disclosure, first made to journalist Karan Thapar of India Today television which broadcast the interview tonight, suggests that he gave to Indira something that was not available in the public domain.
Contacted by The Telegraph tonight, Rajeswar, 89, said: "I did not read the chapter that was handed to me by then Tamil Nadu chief minister M.G. Ramachandran (popularly known as MGR), so I can't confirm what it contained. But it was a chapter from Mathai's book - that much I do know."
Mathai died in 1981 - the year Rajeswar said MGR gave him the chapter. At the time of the death, Mathai, a Malayali, was living in Chennai, which may explain why MGR, the Tamil Nadu chief minister, became the recipient of the chapter. Rajeswar was IB director then.
On the India Today television interview with Thapar, Rajeswar said MGR gave him the chapter and he had taken it without comment and handed it to Indira.
The then Prime Minister received the chapter without comment, according to a statement from the channel.
More disclosures in the future may solve the mystery of what happened to the chapter Indira purportedly took from Rajeswar. If the chapter contained unflattering content, the chances of it having been destroyed is high.
Or, if it somehow survived and is eventually discovered, it is possible that the government of the day may lock it up citing content inimical to friendly nations.
In the interview, Rajeswar said he had in 1975 tried to access Justice Jagmohanlal Sinha's landmark judgment before it was delivered. Sinha, in the judgment, declared Indira's election in the Lok Sabha elections that year invalid - a ruling that is seen as the trigger that drove Indira to declare the Emergency.
Rajeswar said he had contacted a local IB officer in Allahabad, J.N. Roy, to try and obtain details of the judgment before Sinha delivered it.
In the 1977 elections, held after the Emergency was lifted, it was clear a week before the results were declared that Indira's Congress would lose. The day the results were announced, then home secretary S.L. Khurana tried to contact the returning officer in Rae Bareli to order a recount, Rajeswar claimed. Indira lost in Rae Bareli to Raj Narain.
During the Emergency, Indira was aware of the excesses carried out by her son Sanjay Gandhi, Rajeswar said. "We handed her quarterly or half-yearly intelligence reports with all details," Rajeswar told Thapar. "She definitely knew."
Forcible sterilisations and demolition of slums near Delhi's Turkman Gate came to symbolise the extremes during the Emergency. The Emergency was the brainchild of former Bengal chief minister Siddhartha Shankar Ray, Rajeswar said.
The RSS had supported the Emergency and the then Sangh chief, Balasaheb Deoras, had tried to establish contact with Indira, said Rajeswar. "Not only they (the RSS) were supportive of this, they wanted to establish contact apart from Mrs Gandhi, with Sanjay Gandhi also," he said.
When Indira returned to power in 1980, Rajeswar said, she had prayers conducted at 1, Safdarjung Road - the Prime Minister's residence at the time - for three days, especially in a room to be occupied by Sanjay and his wife Maneka, now a minister in the current government. |
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