by Anuj Dhar
“You know, Colonel Habib was wearing the same uniform that day, and there’s no signs it’s been through fire,” interjected Col BS Raturi of the INA.
“Sit down!” Rahman got up on his feet, visibly annoyed. Raturi stared back to him and left the room.
Bose’s uncle was now curious. “What is Raturi talking about? Is this the same uniform you were wearing when the crash took place? Call Raturi back and clear the matter right away!!”
“This is all I have to say,” Rahman mumbled and left.
Years later, Dr Dutt appeared before the Khosla Commission and opined that Rahman’s burns could have been caused by acid. Col Raturi’s memory failed him because at the time of his examination on 1 March 1971 he was with the R&AW. Aurobindo recalled during his deposition how he would “compliment” Rahman for creating realistic burn marks with acid. “Habib either used to keep mum or smile at this suggestion.” [4] Dwijen recollected Rahman telling him that "I tried to put out the fire with the palms of my hand," and his finding the burn marks on the dorsal side of Rahman’s hands.
As a businessman dealing in garments, Dwijendra knew a little about warps and woofs. He saw the cut marks on Rahman’s body but failed to locate the corresponding damage on the dress Rahman said he was wearing at the time of the alleged air crash. “The sewing was intact…not a mark of any burning or any repairing. When he lifted the trousers to show me the cut mark on his right knee, I marked his trousers and there was no mark of any stitching there.”
Dwijen also believed that the watch furnished by Rahman as the one which Bose was wearing at the time of air crash did not belong to his uncle. Rahman stealthily passed this burnt square watch to Shah Nawaz Khan, saying it came to him from Dr Yoshimi who had removed it from the person of Bose. But Dr Yoshimi denied that he had ever given any watch to Rahman. Dwijen noticed that the mark left by fastener on leather strap indicated that the watch was worn by someone whose wrist was bulkier than his uncle’s. He asked Rahman about his own watch. Rahman said it was stolen when he was imprisoned in the Red Fort.
“So, I asked Habib sahib,” Dwijendra resumed, “‘Tell me confidentially that the plane crash had not taken place…. I am not going to let it out before the public, because, I think as we were tutored, when Netaji left India, not to give out the story of his going. So you might have been tutored by him also. Unless your palms are burnt, unless you had a cut mark in your trousers also, I am not going to believe the story that you say.’ Then he told me. ‘You are a nephew of Netaji. You were a collaborator of his plans of going out of India; you were in politics with him. I never expected such silly questions from you!’”
“What did you conclude?” a lawyer asked Dwijendra.
“I concluded that he gave me an idea in a roundabout fashion that you should not have asked me this question: You should have surmised yourself, that there was no plane crash; that he did not die.....”
“Because he was under an oath, he could not say it himself? It was for you to have guessed it?”
“'Yes!' Thereafter, I remember one thing—I do not know whether I have told it before the Shah Nawaz Committee. I asked him: Habib sahib, tell me, frankly tell me, what is the position? He said: ‘I can’t tell you anything. You are not the person who can order me…I can take orders from Netaji; I cannot take your orders’.” [5]
For every man convinced by Rahman that Bose had died in Taipei there was one who thought that Rahman was taking him for a ride. Businessman Hem Raj Batai testified before the Khosla Commission that Gandhiji took “the cue” after talking to Rahman. “I know guru (leader) was not telling the truth,” Batai heard him say tongue-in-cheek, alluding to his some experience with Bose. “And the chela (follower) was also not telling the truth.” [6]
Not just Satyen Dutt, most of the Bose’s immediate family members, Sarat Bose above all, lived and died with the feeling that Rahman just carried out an “order”.
The list of INA men who thought that Rahman had been ordered to give out a certain story was impressive. Abid Hasan Safrani, who was present at Saigon airport on 17 August 1945 evening when Bose and Rahman left, told the Khosla Commission that “for finding out whether that accident took place or not, that one person could not be Habibur Rahman”. [7] An explanation was given by Col Pritam Singh, who was there along with Safrani. Singh told the Khosla Commission that in his view Habib was under an oath of secrecy to Bose and the air crash theory was only a cover. He elaborated before the Mukherjee Commission that Rahman “would not divulge anything even on pain of death”. [8] Maj Bhaskaran Menon testified before the same commission that his “firm conviction and belief” that Bose never died in the alleged plane crash was formed after his talks with Rahman.
The commission also took the evidence of Capt Bipul Kumar Sarkar of INA secret service. Sarkar recalled the time when Rahman staying with him at his house. He said that he heard the whole story but found no burn or scratch mark on his shirt and on his palm. “Thank you colonel sahib. I got the message,” he interposed. Rahman the extracted a promise from Sarkar that he would not “disclose this to anybody for thirty years”. “I honoured the promise,” Sarkar told Justice Mukherjee during his brief appearance on 4 April 2001. Col Mahboob Ahmed, Bose’s military secretary and then chief protocol officer in the MEA, was examined on the secrecy aspect before the Khosla Commission to the same outcome.
“Supposing Netaji had selected you to go with him in the last journey to a place of safety, and if he had asked you to carry some news regarding Netaji, would you at any stage disclose it if Netaji had asked you not to disclose it?”
“No. My loyalty to him was so great that I would have done anything for him.” [9]
Many of Bose's less-known, die-hard followers swore fealty to him and observed it throughout their lives. Justice Khosla in his report described Sunil Das as "a political worker and a close associate of Bose for some years (1939-1941)". But Das wasn't an average revolutionary. He published a paper in the American journal of physical chemistry and yet chose to be a freedom fighter like his siblings, all three of whom died for the nation. So long as he lived, Das never told even his best friends of his contact with Bhagwanji, the holy man he regarded as Subhas Bose.
Ailing Das was examined at his residence on 6 September 1972 in the presence of a district judge representing Justice Khosla. [He is sitting on the extreme right in the picture you see now. Also visible from left are ND Mazumdar, Amar Prasad Chakrovarty, in suit, and Sunil Krishna Gupta]
Sunil Das was asked by the lawyers present to reflect on the rumours of Bose being alive and Leela Roy’s thoughts about it. And guess how he tackled the posers? He took the oath of secrecy cover.
The point that I want to ask from you [Das] is that you knew Netaji well intimately so as not to mistake his identity?
His identity? So far as I am concerned, good heavens, never. How can I mistake his identity?
Do you think that if Netaji is really alive there is something really insurmountable which would prevent him or would actually prevent him from coming into the arena when the country is in utter confusion and chaos?
Your question has two parts. Regarding the first part of the question my reply is, I believe that Netaji is alive. Regarding the second part I have no competence to go into it.
How many times do you think Mrs Leela Roy met Sarat Babu?
I think almost everyday.
Was there any discussion regarding Netaji’s alleged plane crash?
As far as I remember, Sarat Babu never believed it….
Did didi ever write regarding the disappearance of Netaji... in Jayasree?
There were occasions when this subject cropped up in editorials after 1963. I should say, we noticed a change in her—within herself. Although I happened to be her closest colleague and in many matters she shared counsel with me—[but] as you know, we had been trained in the crucibles of secret revolutionary politics and we have developed a code and we maintain the code in this way. Unless I am specifical
ly told, if somebody in the hierarchy wants to keep something within himself or herself, we do not try to get it. That has been our training. Up till now I carry that thing with me….
Sunil Das told the commission that Leela Roy forcefully questioned the air crash theory after 1963, the year she met Bhagwanji.
Would you agree if I say that she had close connection with Netaji even after the alleged plane crash and didi narrated those things to you?
We had discussions about these matters. We do not believe that Netaji is dead and she has pointedly put in certain editorials and she has increasingly become affirmative—more and more affirmative as days passed—and she has categorically stated that India will some day enjoy the benefit of his leadership.
And so she was emphatic that Netaji did not die in the plane crash?
Yes, there is no doubt about it. [10]
“But I have mine,” you’d say. “How is it possible for people to keep mum over such a big issue for so many years?” “I can’t even for a day!”
Well, don’t the government officials world over go to their graves with their secrets?
“That’s government work! People outside a government can’t keep sitting over secrets for that long. At least they will tell their families.”
Oh dear! Forget government officials, even the journalists—whose basic instinct is go to town with whatever they know—hold back secrets! An average journalist working in New Delhi knows far, far more than what gets reported in her or his name.
In 2005 Mark Felt, former associate director of the FBI, a known figure of the Watergate scandal-era, revealed himself to be the man who had given the Washington Post the crucial leads that helped bring Richard Nixon down in 1974. “I’m the guy they used to call Deep Throat,” he said and in one go falsified all of his previous protestations that he was not. Actually Felt had sworn to the co-author of his memoir that he was not Deep Throat and that he never leaked anything to Bob Woodward or Carl Bernstein. The Post journalists too never ever told anyone about the identity of Deep Throat—not even to their wives and children—until the 91-year-old Felt decided to reveal himself as their long-anonymous source.
Who knows Habibur Rahman could have also come out with the truth about 18 August 1945—but if only he was in India. In 1947, he went to Pakistan. Rahman fought against India in J&K in 1948, then served in Pakistan’s foreign ministry and retired as the country’s additional defence secretary—even though his “past association with the INA and reverence for Bose had not gone very well with the vast majority of the Pakistani elite and army officers”. [11] At any point of time if Rahman were to say that he had not been truthful all the while, he would have started a major diplomatic row between the two neighbours. He died in 1978 at age 65. During his last visit to India in 1956, he remarked in private to Bose [and later Bhagwanji] follower Sunil Krishna Gupta, "Let them declare that Netaji is dead. It will be our double gain when he returns!"
[Raja Habibur Rahman Khan in his latter days in a picture uploaded on Wikipedia by his grandson]
But Bose never came back. Bhagwanji, whoever he was, never came out in the open. There was never a real chance for Habibur Rahman to do a Mark Felt.
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About the author
Anuj Dhar is a New Delhi-based independent researcher. Visit www.subhaschandrabose.org/ibc.php for more information.
Notes on public domain information, including declassified records and information accessed under transparency laws
Prologue
[1]. KF Nariman, Non-violent murder, 28 February 1941. Nariman was president of Bombay Provincial Congress Committee and a former mayor of Mumbai.
[2]. Subhas Chandra Bose, The Indian Struggle, Research Publishing & Printing Foundation, Kolkata, India.
[3]. Dilip Kumar Roy, Netaji—The man: Reminiscences, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan, 1966, p. 153, 54.
[4]. Ibid, p. 153.
[5]. KF Nariman, Non-violent murder, 28 February 1941.
[6]. Kitty Kurti, Subhas Chandra Bose as I knew him, Firma KL Mukhopadhyay, 1966, p. 57.
[7]. Ibid, p. 13.
[8]. Ibid, p. 49.
[9]. Ibid, p. 11.
[10]. Ibid, p. 39.
{11]. On to Delhi, Time magazine, 26 July 1943.
[12]. Part played by the INA in active operations against Allied forces, CSDIC (I), 12 May 1946, File No INA 402, the National Archives of India, New Delhi.
[13]. Operational Security Intelligence, File No INA 249, the National Archives of India, New Delhi. Researcher Rishy Nirmal helped me in locating some of the relevant records at the archives.
[14]. Sir H Twynam (Central Province and Berar) to Field Marshal Viscount Wavell, 10 November 1945, Transfer of Power, Volume VI, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, London, p. 469.
[15]. Note prepared by the Director, Intelligence Bureau on the INA situation, Transfer of Power, Volume VI, Her Majesty’s Stationery Office, London, p. 512.
[16]. Subir Bhaumik, Taiwan rejects Bose crash theory, BBC news, 4 February 2005.
[17]. Kitty Kurti, Subhas Chandra Bose as I knew him, Firma KL Mukhopadhyay, 1966, p. 57.
[18]. Rajnish Sharma, Dead or alive: Netaji Commission report comes a cropper, Hindustan Times, 7 April 2005.
[19]. The Greasy Pole, Yes Minister Series, Quotes from the dialogue, accessed from
http://www.jonathanlynn.com/tv/yes_minister_series/yes_minister_episode_quotes.htm.
[20]. The Lok Sabha proceedings on 18 May 2006.
[21]. Ibid.
[22]. Rai Singh, Far from close, The Pioneer (letters section), 21 April 2005.
[23]. Affidavit dated 6 March 2000 filed by Surya Kumar Bose for before Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry. The affidavit was attested by Vice Consul at the office of Consulate General of India in Hamburg, Germany.
[24]. Ibid.
[25]. Pranab faces ire over Netaji report, Hindustan Times, 18 June 2006, accessed from http://www.hindustantimes.com/Pranab-faces-ire-over-Netaji-report/Article1-110907.aspx.
[26]. Rajya Sabha proceedings on 24 August 2006.
[27]. Forward Bloc sore with Somnath Chatterjee, Zee News, 9 August 2006. Accessed from http://zeenews.india.com/news/states/forwrad-bloc-sore-with-somnath-chatterjee_314428.html.
[28-30]. Lok Sabha proceedings on 3 August 2006.
[31]. Lok Sabha proceedings on 2 August 2006.
[32-36]. Excerpted from the record of Rajya Sabha’s proceeding on 24 August 2006.
[37]. Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry report, Volume 1, page 17.
[38] Rajya Sabha proceeding on 24 August 2006.
[39]. Central Information Commission decision on Appeal No. CIC/AT/C/2006/00087, 5 July 2007.
[40]. Ibid.
[41] Aloke Tikku, RTI effect: Netaji papers to be released, Hindustan Times, 6 November 2007.
1. Bose mystery begins
[1]. Record of proceedings of Khosla Commission obtained under RTI, Volume V, pp 1971, 1922.
[2]. Typed copy of Habibur Rahman’s statement to Shah Nawaz Committee, 9 April 1956. The original is still held classified by the Government of India.
[3]. Letter No 1400/23/SE dated 25 March 1946 from CSDIC on “Last plans of SC Bose”. File no INA 400, the National Archives of India, New Delhi.
[4]. Typed copy of Habibur Rahman’s statement to Shah Nawaz Committee, 9 April 1956.
[5]. Ibid.
[6] CSDIC (India) report No 2, section report No 1156 dated 31 December 1945. File no INA 249, the National Archives of India, New Delhi.
[7]. Ibid.
[8]. Typed copy of Habibur Rahman’s statement to Shah Nawaz Committee, 9 April 1956.
[9-11]. Ibid.
[12]. SA Ayer's 1951 report to Prime Minister Nehru.
[13]. SA Ayer's report to Prime Minister Nehru and copy of Habibur Rahman's statement to Shah Nawaz Committee.
[14]. Typed copy of Habibur Rahman's statement to Shah Nawaz Committee, 9 April 1956.
[15]. Ibid.
[16
]. Statement of Yoshimi Taneyoshi dated 19 October 1946. File no INA 249, the National Archives of India, New Delhi.
[17-22]. Typed copy of Habibur Rahman’s statement to Shah Nawaz Committee, 9 April 1956.
[23]. Record of proceedings of Khosla Commission obtained under RTI, Volume V, p. 1662.
[24]. Subhas Bose dead: Announcement by Jap News Agency, The Times of India, 24 August 1945.
[25]. Subhas Bose’s death: Pt Nehru shocked, Amrita Bazar Patrika, 26 August 1945.
[26]. Reported death of Subhas Bose, Hindustan Times, 25 August 1945.
[27]. Wavell: The Viceroy’s journal, edited by Penderel Moon, Oxford University Press, Delhi, 1973, p. 164.
[28]. Subhas Bose’s death: Pandit Nehru’s doubt, The Times of India, 14 September 1945.
[29]. No 10005/3/GSI (b). The British Library, Oriental and India Office Collections, London.
[30]. Report No B2 dated 5 October 1945 by PES Finney, File no INA 273, the National Archives of India, New Delhi.
[31]. Ibid.
[32]. Interrogation report of Major Takayashi Kiyoji of Hikari Kikan. Khosla Commission exhibit No 24 B obtained under RTI.
[33]. Report No B2 dated 5 October 1945 by PES Finney, File no INA 273, the National Archives of India, New Delhi.
[34]. Report No Cz/49 dated 8 October 1945 from Lt Col John Figges, British Staff Section, USA forces and enclosure (CIC report of 29 September 1945). Khosla Commission exhibit No 24 D obtained under RTI.
[35]. Report of WFM Davies on Subhas Bose Saigon inquiry dated 7 October 1945. File no INA 400, the National Archives of India, New Delhi.