Nehru tried to help Netaji's wife

The “Netaji Files” released by the government on Saturday revealed that the country’s first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru had sought to send financial aid to Subhash Chandra Bose’s wife Emilie Schenkl in 1952.

One of the documents released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi indicated that Nehru had sought advice from Ministry of Finance and Ministry of External Affairs on June 12, 1952 how “small sums of money” could be sent to Schenkl in Vienna.

The ministries later suggested that a sum of GBP 100 be sent to Schenkl through private channels, to vice consul of India at Vienna. Nehru agreed and directed that the Vice Consul at Vienna should disburse GBP 100 pounds to the widow in cash or as gifts – altogether or in instalments.

Another document revealed that the government in 1976 had rejected a proposal from the Embassy of India in Tokyo to bring back the “ashes” of Netaji kept in the Renkoji Temple in Japan to India.

T V Rajeswar, a joint director of the Intelligence Bureau, argued against the proposal, noting that family of Netaji and the Forward Bloc, a political party founded by him, do not “recognise the ashes” as those of him.

He noted that if the ashes were brought back, the government would be accused of “foisting a false story upon the people of West Bengal and India, taking advantage of Emergency”.