Mukherjee Commission

The Mukherjee Commission refers to the one-man board of Mr. Justice Manoj Mukherjee , a retired judge of the Supreme Court of India which was instituted in 1999 to enquire into the controversy surrounding the reported death of Subhas Chandra Bose in 1945.

On 30 April 1998, the High Court of Calcutta gave orders to the then BJP-led Government to "launch a vigorous inquiry as a special case for the purpose of giving an end to the controversy".^[1]

Many, however, feel that with a new Congress controlled government now in power, the commission's results may be undermined. Many conspiracies abound, and many contain specific details that are damaging to the Congress Party and Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.

The Mukherjee Commission is also not the first commission created to ascertain the death of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. The two previous commissions were the Shah Newaz Commission (appointed by Jawaharlal Nehru) and The Khosla Commission respectively. The Khosla Commission, created by the government of Indira Gandhi (daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru), reported that all documents relating to Prime Minister Nehru and the reports of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose were either missing or destroyed.

Objectives of the commission

The purpose of the commission was the ascertain the following:

1. Whether Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose is dead or alive?
2. If he is dead whether he died in the plane crash, as alleged?
3. Whether the ashes in the Japanese temple are ashes of Netaji?
4. Whether he has died in any other manner at any other place and, if so, when and how?
5. If he is alive, in respect of his whereabouts.

The commission is also the first to probe into the much publicized Soviet-connection. The basics of which are that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose did indeed survive the end of the Second World War, and detained in a Siberian camp in the late 1940s. A former Russian General swore under oath to the commission that he had seen a true Soviet-cabinet paper detailing and discussing a "living" Subhas Chandra Bose, one year after his supposed death.

Findings of Commission

The findings of the commission are following:^[2]

1. Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose is dead
2. He did not die in the plane crash, as alleged, but probably flew towards the USSR^[3]
3. The ashes in the Japanese temple are not of Netaji
4. In the absence of any clinching evidence a positive answer cannot be given
5. Question not Applicable

Rejection of Mukherjee Commission report by the Govt of India

The Mukherjee Commission report was tabled in the Parliament of India on 17 May 2006. The report said that Netaji did not die in the alleged air crash of 1945 and the ashes at the Renkoji temple are not his ashes. (Deposition given by Dr.Suresh Padhye of Amravati. Reference: http://netajibosemysteryrevealed.org/). The report also did not comment on Netaji's alleged stay in Russia after 1945 and called for further investigation into the matter. However, the report said that Netaji could be presumed to be dead today.

The Govt of India has rejected the findings of the Commission, saying that it did not agree with the findings.

Controversies

The Death of Netaji remains a mystery. No one cooperated in the investigation and consequently the JMC of enquiry was forced to submit its unfinished work to the home minister Shivraj Patil. The main reason for this is the non-cooperation shown by the home ministry. The dissatisfaction caused resulted in Justice Mukherjee sending the report through his secretary rather than submit it in person.

During the whole tenure of the investigation, only one country, Taiwan has shown any real cooperation. Even the Govt of India refused to share some important intelligence files under the pretext of them being sensitive. The GoI will be tabling this report along with the ATR to the parliament. At the moment the home minister has passed on this 500 page report to the CS division of the ministry for scrutiny.

Subrata Bose, who was present in all the international trips made by the JMC has said that apart from Taiwan, no other country has shown any cooperation. On the basis of the information available from Taiwan it is now confirmed that no air-crash took place on 18 August 1945 which could have killed Netaji as previously propagated.

The commission had tried to uncover facts from trips to Japan, Taiwan and Britain. The UPA govt has permitted the commission to visit Russia. Bose said that Russia too did not cooperate in this investigation. Officials in Russia had said that files were present in the former KGB archives but the commission was not even allowed to visit the archives. The hostile posture of the British, Japanese and Indian governments is intriguing and seems to strongly point to an international conspiracy. In any case it is clear that Netaji Bose was seen in Russia in 1946. Lately American state department has sent information to the commission which corroborate the fact that no aircrash took place in Taiwan. The request for intelligence papers from the Govt. of India elicited the official response that they cannot be opened as they are of a highly sensitive nature that may jeopardise international relations between India and some of its friend nations.

The JMC commission was formed by the former NDA Government to investigate the mystery surrounding Netaji's death at the end of world war II. The only kindness shown by the UPA Govt was to extend the commission's tenure by 6 months - from May 2005 to 14 November 2005. But the commission has now submitted its report to the Govt before the end date.

Also three researchers who helped find the declassified documents in the military archives of Paddolsk, Russia, Purabi Ray, Hari Vasudevan and Shobanlal Dutta Gupta, have also reported threats from unidentified persons upon their lives, if they did not stop their research. Many files and documents by the Union Home Ministry have been deemed a risk to national security and under Sections 123 and 124 of the Evidence Act and Article 74(2) of the Constitution of India, have not been disclosed to the commission.

Justice Mukherjee's revelation

Justice Manoj Kumar Mukherjee stated in his report that the sanyasi of Faizabad (Bhagwanji) was not Bose as there was no clinching evidence to prove it. Nor did it confirm the Swamiji of Shaulmari Ashram in North Bengal was Netaji. However, the commission supports the view that Bose had not died in the plane crash in 1945, and was in fact in India after that.^[4]

However, later Justice Mukherjee seems to claim that the monk is in fact Netaji: “It is my personal feeling…But I am 100 per cent sure that he (the monk) is Netaji”^[5]

References

1. ^ http://www.bjp.org/Press/July_2005/july_0805.htm last visited on July 2005
2. ^ http://missionnetaji.org/newsite/page/conclusions.html last visited on 9th April 2007
3. ^ http://www.subhaschandrabose.org/disappearance/FAQ.html
4. ^ http://www.thestatesman.net/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=320039&catid=38
5. ^ http://www.subhaschandrabose.org/edit/1002.html

External links

• http://www.rashtriyasahara.com/20051109/National.htm#2005110984
• Mission Netaji - Committed to find the truth behind the disappearance of Netaji
• http://netajibosemysteryrevealed.org
• The Mukherjee Commission Report
• Post Mukherjee Commission News Updates