New Delhi: The Central government on Wednesday informed Lok Sabha that despite several requests since 2014, Moscow has conveyed that it was unable to find any documents in the Russian archives pertaining to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.
The Centre was replying to a question by M. Badruddin Ajmal, All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) MP from Dhubri in Assam as to whether the Indian government had written any letter to the Russian government on the ‘whereabouts/information on Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose between 2014 till date’ and details of the questions asked by the Indian government and the reply. He also sought to know whether the Indian government was aware of the fact that Russian president Vladimir Putin had given an order in June that all records related to Soviet prisoners in gulag camps in Siberia should be destroyed; and if so, the details of measures taken by the Indian government to protect the records of Indian prisoners who were in those camps at that time.
In his written reply to the MP, minister of state for external affairs V. Muraleedharan said that the Indian government had sought to learn from Russia whether he was in the Soviet Union anytime before or after August 1945 and whether or not he escaped to the USSR in August 1945 or thereafter, as reported by some researchers.
India has also requested Russia to hand over any document or material relating to Bose, which may be in its possession, the minister said.
There are several theories floating around regarding the “disappearance of Netaji”. Netaji is widely believed to have died in an air crash in Taiwan on August 18, 1945, a claim that was denied by Taiwanese authorities, who said there was no air crash in Taipei on this date. Some, however, have said that he lived as an ascetic named Gumnami Baba in Faizabad (Uttar Pradesh).
It is also believed by some that Netaji was in Russia till at least 1968 where he met Nikhil Chattopadhyaya at Omsk. Nikhil was the son of
anti-Raj revolutionary Virendranath Chatto-padhyaya, who is believed to have been executed by Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin’s government in 1937.
In his affidavit before the Mukherjee Commission, which was appointed to probe the alleged disappearance of Netaji in 199, an Indian journalist who lived in Moscow between 1968 and 1991, quoted Nikhil Chattopadhyaya as saying that Bose was in hiding in Russia because he feared being prosecuted as a war criminal in India. This affidavit was among several documents declassified by the Prime Minister’s Office with regard to the matter a couple of years back.
BJP MP Subramanian Swamy, who has been seeking declassification of files to unravel the “mystery”, had in the past blamed Stalin for killing Bose in captivity in Siberia.
According to media reports, Russian officials have reportedly started destroying the records of gulag prisoners under a secret order passed in 2014. It is estimated that close to 17 million people were held in the notorious labour camps between 1930 and 1940 under Stalin where many died due to poor living and working conditions.
