Spotlight
New
Delhi, 27 September 2019
Doval Rubs It In
NETAJI NOT CONG HURRIED EXIT
By Proloy Bagchi
NSA Ajit Doval’s
repeated reiteration of Netaji’s role in hastening British exit from India is
an attempt at appropriation of Subhash Chandra Bose and his legacy for the BJP.
He has dug into history and repeated what Clement Atlee, Prime Minister of
Great Britain at the time of India’s Independence had revealed during his visit
to India in 1956. Earl Atlee had told the then acting Governor of Bengal that
the British departure from the country was hastened by the activities of the
INA and the nationalist fervor it injected into the Armed forces.
It seems, Clement
Atlee who was Prime Minister of Great Britain when India became independent
came on a visit to Kolkata in 1956 and stayed there for two days as guest of
Governor West Bengal. The Governor at that time was Phani Bhushan Chakravarti,
the first Indian Chief Justice of Bengal who was at that time acting against
the post. He had a lengthy conversation with Atlee during which he happened to
have asked the latter what was the reason for the uncalled-for haste for the
British exit from India, particularly when there was no compelling ground. There
was no anti-British movement and the last one, the Quit India Movement, had
petered out.
That is when Atlee
told him there were numerous reasons, but the most important one was Netaji’s
activities, the INA and its fight against the British besides the nationalism
that it evoked in the British Indian Armed forces. Atlee had in mind the naval
mutiny of Karachi and Bombay, the Army rebellion of Jabalpur and stray
rebellious incidents in the Royal Indian Air Force. His contention was that
with the erosion of the loyalty of the Indian Armed forces for the British
Crown, it was felt, it would be difficult to keep the country within the
Empire.
Asked whether the
non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi had anything to do with the hasty
withdrawal of British from the country, Atlee replied, pronouncing each
syllable separately with a disdainful smile, “minimal”. If one goes by what
Atlee is reported to have told the then acting Governor of Bengal it was in no
way the Indian National Congress’s non-violent resistance led by Mahatma Gandhi
that forced the British to withdraw from India.
By making a mention
of Late Earl Atlee’s statement Ajit Doval was only responding to the repeated
claims of Rahul Gandhi that if the Congress could win independence from the
British it could certainly take on the BJP at the 2019 elections which was then
yet to take place. The results of it, however, were so dismal for the Congress
that Rahul had to give up his President’s post. In any case, it is somewhat
like coming from the horse’s mouth that it was the INA that forced the British
to let go of the “jewel in the crown”.
Ever since
independence, the Congress has cornered all the glory magnifying its role in
the freedom movement to the exclusion of all others, including that of Netaji
Subhash Chandra Bose. Its claim of winning freedom for the country by means
that were non-violent in nature was a fraud that was spun and perpetrated by
the leaders of the Congress. As it turns out with the statement of Atlee, it
was Bose’s daring efforts to throw out the British by combining with the Axis
Powers, though held controversial by many, proved to be the nemesis for British
imperialism.
Not only was India
freed of the British yoke, India’s independence resulted in freedom of many
small and big nations right around the world. The sun, which had stopped
setting over the British Empire a century or so ago, started setting over it
again. The seed for this was sown by Netaji and his Indian National Army. The
INA became idol for the men in the British Indian forces who were very unhappy
on account of the post-War INA Trials at the Red Fort. The rebellions in the British
Indian forces were because of their discomfiture as they were always told that
they could win wars only when led by the British. In the INA they were led by
their own countrymen acquitting themselves very creditably.
The leaders of the
Congress were always antipathetic towards Subhash Chandra Bose even though he
was popular among the Party’s rank and file. While Bose wanted firmer actions
against the ruling British his opponents in the Congress believed in
compromises. In fact, when he found that his efforts were being stymied by his
opponents he escaped from confinement and went to Germany to meet Hitler to
seek help for India’s independence. INA followed as a corollary and that seems
to have worked against the British.
Even in his death,
controversy did not leave Netaji alone. There were quite a few theories about
his disappearance after he left Saigon for Tokyo. Many believed that he wanted
to go into the custody of Russians after the surrender of Japan and had
therefore proceeded to Manchuria, which was close to being annexed by Russia
from Japan. Many considered the ashes kept at Renkoji temple as fake. Even in
India, a large section of people believed that there was no plane crash and
that Netaji had come back to India to live incognito as a saint. First, it was
a saint of Shoulmari who was considered by many as Netaji. Later, another saint
living in Faizabad, UP, was widely believed to be Netaji. Intermittently
reports would appear of his close connections with members of the Bose family
who, along with some of his friends, were reported to have visited him.
After his death in
1985 a large number of documents, including photographs of the Bose family,
were recovered from the ashram of the Baba who used to be called Gumnami.
Various items of personal effects, like his silver rimmed spectacles and a gold
Rolex wrist watch were also found in his ashram after the Baba’s death.
Recently, a report appeared in the newspapers indicating that American
handwriting experts have certified that the handwriting of Bose and the Baba
had very strong similarities. Other physical features of the two also happened
to tally.
In view of Atlee’s
statement on the British withdrawal many historians have said that the time has
now come to re-appraise the role of Subhash Bose in the freedom struggle.
Hitherto, written history has extolled only the roles of Mahatma Gandhi and
Jawaharlal Nehru in it. That is from where Rahul Gandhi got his wrong notions
about the Congress winning freedom for the country. But as many feel, a time
now has come to reassess the roles of leaders like Netaji in the fight for
freedom, particularly when they had been moved to and kept in the margins all
these years by the hegemon that was the Indian National Congress. ---INFA
(Copyright, India News
& Feature Alliance)
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