Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s daughter Anita Bose Pfaff said she will soon approach the Indian and the Japanese governments for a DNA test of the ashes at Tokyo’s Renkoji Temple. Thursday (August 18) marked the 77th death anniversary of Netaji, who — notwithstanding the mystery surrounding his demise — is widely believed to have died in a plane crash in Taiwan.
Previous attempts
Previous attempts
- Pfaff, a German, said she had approached the Indian government for the DNA test when the
Congress was in power but never got a reply. - “This time, I won’t dillydally much longer…I would parallelly get in touch with the Japanese government,” she told PTI, adding technology advancement now offers the means for sophisticated DNA testing.
Probe panels
- Pfaff said resolving the mystery shrouding Bose’s life and bringing back the ashes to India would be a true tribute to the revolutionary as the country celebrates its 75th anniversary of Independence.
- Since Independence, India formed three inquiry commissions to unravel the mystery over Netaji’s disappearance.
- Two of them — the Shah Nawaz Commission and Khosla Commission, formed by the Congress governments — concluded that Bose died in an air crash. The third one — the Mukherjee Commission formed by the BJP-led NDA government had said he did not die in it.
- In 2015, the West Bengal government released 64 files on Netaji held by the Home Department. The Narendra Modi government in 2016 released 100 files on the legend.