No hurdle from Renkoji priests to transfer Netaji's remains, Bose's kin renew return plea

Kolkata: Refuting perceptions of roadblocks to bring back the mortal remains held in an urn in a Buddhist temple in Renkoji in Japan, widely believed to be that of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, a section of descendants of the national hero claim they have documentary evidence to prove that the temple authorities have always been more than willing to hand over the 'ashes' to India.

The demand to bring back the remains and conduct DNA tests to affirm whether they indeed belong to one of the tallest figures of India's freedom struggle has been an abiding wish of a significant bulk of Netaji admirers who seek closure to one of India's longest persisting enigma: whether Bose perished in the aftermath of a fatal Japanese military aircraft crash in present-day Taiwan, on August 18, 1945.

Reports of as many as 10 national and international enquiries probing Netaji's disappearance on that fateful day, now available in the national archives in New Delhi, have confirmed Bose's death at a hospital in the Japanese military airfield in Taihoku, now Taiwan, as a result of the severe burn injuries he suffered in the crash.

An exception to those committees' findings was that of the Commission chaired by retired Supreme Court judge Manoj Kumar Mukherjee, the last of the probe panels constituted by the Union government, which submitted its report in November 2005 and concluded that Bose "is dead", though he "did not die in the plane crash, as alleged".

"The ashes in the Japanese temple are not of Netaji," the Commission had further concluded. The Indian government had rejected the findings of the Commission.

The confusion over the alleged "lack of cooperation" from the Renkoji temple priests, some descendants of Netaji maintained, could have arisen from the Mukherjee Commission report which blamed the "Temple authorities' reticence" in allowing commission-designated experts to physically inspect and collect "potentially less charred bone pieces from the casket lying in their custody" for conducting DNA tests.

Speaking to PTI on the eve of Netaji's 128th birth anniversary, Chandra Kumar Bose, the leader's grand nephew, said, "The PMO and the Indian government must respond to the numerous letters sent by Prof Anita Bose Pfaff, Netaji's daughter and other members of the Bose family regarding arrangements to bring Netaji's remains to India, which is lying in a foreign country." "Netaji wanted to return to Independent India, but he could not as he sacrificed his life fighting for India's freedom. It is an act of sacrilege that his remains continue to lie in Japan. There is conclusive evidence that the remains are of Netaji in 10 enquiry reports.

"However, if the government feels the remains are not of Netaji, then a statement must be issued to this effect. Mere silence is an insult to the memory of this great leader," he added, drawing attention to the cold and solitary locale of Renkoji where the remains lie preserved for nearly eight decades.

Madhuri Bose, grand-niece of Subhas Bose, maintains that Reverend Mochizuki, head priest of the Renkoji temple as well as successive governments of India and Japan were "at the time entirely supportive of DNA testing on the remains and… certainly took no actions to deny access to the remains." In her foreword to the recently published book, 'From Shadows To Light: The Truth of Netaji's Mortal End', authored by Bose researcher Sumeru Roy Chaudhury, Madhuri alleged that certain parts of the translation from Japanese of the original letter from the temple authorities which was included in the Mukherjee Commission report were "inexplicably missing".

The missing part "is a clear reaffirmation of his firm commitment to a DNA testing process, expressed as follows: My father (the first Reverend Mochizuki) used to tell me when he was alive that the remains should be returned to India. I felt that if I accepted the proposal for DNA testing and the remains would eventually be returned to India, my father's soul and spirit could finally be at rest," Madhuri wrote.

"Many of us in the family are convinced that Netaji succumbed to his injuries in 1945," she told PTI, "Those who feel otherwise are free to pursue their theories but they must bring conclusive proof for the same." Surya Kumar Bose, the eldest son of Netaji's nephew Amiya Nath Bose, who paid multiple visits to the Renkoji temple and spoke to its current priests, also confirmed the willingness of the authorities to cooperate for scientific tests on the remains.

"In my last visit in 2019, I met the current head priest and the widow of the priest who met Justice Mukherjee. They were consistent in their willingness to hand over the remains for testing," he said.

Author-researcher Roy Chaudhury said that the now-declassified Netaji files revealed at least two government correspondences, one during the 1990s and the other at a subsequent date, which underscored "no political benefits" in bringing back the remains.

"The Manmohan Singh government had made significant progress in getting the remains transferred to the newly-built Indian embassy office in Tokyo. The move got stonewalled once Singh's term ended," he said.

"Narendra Modi has visited Japan, both in his capacity as the Gujarat chief minister and as the Prime Minister of India, more times than any other Indian statesman. But I can't tell you why he never visited Renkoji," Surya Bose added.