GOMOH and Death mystery of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

GOMOH and Death mystery of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

Troubled Galaxy Destroyed Dreams: Chapter 153

Palash Biswas

GREAT LEADER NETAJI SUBHASH CHANDRA BOSE Part-1
http://in.youtube.com/watch?v=uSyGjun_tgc





Subhas Chandra Bose
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Subhas Chandra Bose


Born January 23, 1897(1897-01-23)
Cuttack, Orissa
Died Unknown

Cause of death Unknown
Nationality Indian
Height 5'8.5"
Known for Indian independence movement activism and reorganising and leading the Indian National Army
Title Netaji
Spouse(s) Emilie Schenkl[disputed]
Children Anita Bose Pfaff[disputed]

Subhas Chandra Bose (Bengali: সুভাষ চন্দ্র বসু, Oriya- ସୁଭାଷ ଚନ୍ଦ୍ର ବୋଷ; born January 23, 1897; presumed to have died August 18, 1945 although this is disputed), popularly known as Netaji (literally "Respected Leader"), is one of the most respected politicians of modern India.

Bose was elected president of the Indian National Congress for two consecutive terms but resigned from the post following ideological conflicts with Mahatma Gandhi. Bose believed that Mahatma Gandhi's tactics of non-violence would never be sufficient to secure India's independence, and advocated violent resistance. He established a separate political party, the All India Forward Bloc and continued to call for the full and immediate independence of India from British rule. He was imprisoned by the British authorities eleven times.

His stance did not change with the outbreak of the Second World War, which he saw as an opportunity to take advantage of British weakness. At the outset of the war, he fled from India and travelled to the Soviet Union, Germany and Japan, seeking an alliance with the aim of attacking the British in India. With Japanese assistance, he re-organised and later led the Indian National Army, formed from Indian prisoners-of-war and plantation workers from Malaya, Singapore and other parts of Southeast Asia, against British forces. With Japanese monetary, political, diplomatic and military assistance, he formed the Azad Hind Government in exile and regrouped and led the Indian National Army in battle against the allies at Imphal and in Burma.

His political views and the alliances he made with Nazi and other militarist regimes at war with Britain have been the cause of arguments among historians and politicians, with some accusing him of Fascist sympathies, while others in India have been more sympathetic towards the inculcation of realpolitik as a manifesto that guided his social and political choices. He is believed to have died on 18 August 1945 in a plane crash over Taiwan. However, contradictory evidence exists regarding his death in the accident.

Bose advocated complete freedom for India at the earliest, whereas the Congress Committee wanted it in phases, through a Dominion status. Other younger leaders including Jawaharlal Nehru supported Bose and finally at the historic Lahore Congress convention, the Congress had to adopt Poorna Swaraj (complete freedom) as its motto. Bhagat Singh's martyrdom and the inability of the Congress leaders to save his life infuriated Bose and he started a movement opposing the Gandhi-Irwin Peace Pact. He was imprisoned and expelled from India. But defying the ban, he came back to India and was imprisoned again.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subhas_Chandra_Bose

Gomoh
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Gomoh is a census town in Dhanbad district in the Indian state of Jharkhand. It is a major railway junction situated on the Grand Chord Line under Dhanbad division of the East Central Railway. Gomoh is the meeting point for trains coming from Howrah (Eastern Railway), Ranchi (South Eastern Railway) and Puri (South Eastern Railway). Gomoh is a place of historical importance also. On his great escape, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose caught Howrah-Kalka Mail (then known as 63UP Howrah-Peshawar Express) on 18th January 1941. There is a statue of Netaji on platform no. 1&2 at Gomoh railway station which reminds people of his historic halt. Every year on 23rd January, the railway employees organize a small cultural program to celebrate Netaji's birthday. People of this city also organising a fare in Railway Football Ground on 11 March in the remembrance of assassinated 'Labour Leader' Sadanand Jha.
Demographics
As of 2001[update] India census[2], Gomoh had a population of 28,576. Males constitute 54% of the population and females 46%. Gomoh has an average literacy rate of 70%, higher than the national average of 59.5%: male literacy is 78%, and female literacy is 60%. In Gomoh, 14% of the population is under 6 years of age.


[edit] Social structure
Gomoh consists of people from diverse religious and professional backgrounds. Famous Hindu personality is late chmaru sahu ,who is the best qualified person of gomoh. He is principal of azad h.s boy school .His son Mr.Rabindra kumar is a govt. Teachear . Their grandson Er.somendra and Er.kshemendra ,both are engineer. Anglo Indians can be found here since the British Period as a result of which Christians with their peaceful culture have a dominating effect on the local people. DBH with a Church is their hallmark. Mr. Williams runs 'St. Mary's Day School' which is quite popular here. The Sikh community settled here before Independence as businessmen. A Gurudwara at Loco Bazar gathers many Sikhs from surrounding areas. Eminent Sikh personality of this area was Late Kalyan Singh who was Pramukh of Gomoh. Bengalis are abundant and have contributed largely on the culture of this place. Eminent Bengali personalities are Late Sri Sudhangshu Senapati and his sons Mr. Shambhunath Senapati(Owner Of Hero Honda Showroom in Gomoh) and Mr. Harinarayan Senapati. On Durga Puja we can see a glimpse of Kolkatta at Gomoh, specially at Durga Pada. Muslims both local, railway employees and businessmen contribute substantially to the population and culture of this region. We have one Masjid and Madarsa at Purana Bazar and a Jama Masjid at Loco Bazar. Id-Gah and graveyard of muslims is in Laludih area. Eminent muslim personalities were 'Late S.M. Abdullah, Dr. S.M. Asadullah' and his sons Mr. S.M. Wasimullah(teacher in Saudi Arabia), Mr.S.M.Hasibullah (businessman) and Mr.S.M.Fakhrullah (famous lawyer) and Rizwan Haseeb (son of S.M.Hasibullah, Engineer in Qatar and famous railway contractor Late S.M. Waliullah whose two sons Dr. S.M. Samiullah and Dr. S.M. Zafarullah are famous government doctors of this place and Eminent Business Persons are Mr.Dinesh Prasad, Mr. Binesh Prasad, Mr. Ashok and Anup Barnawal. Most of the people are railway employees (different grades) since Gomoh is a railway based town. Apart from that, there is a strong business class also. Some people are also engaged in agriculture, growing certain cereals and vegetables. Main festivals celebrated in Gomoh include Durga Puja (Dussehra), Dipawali, Holi, Chatth puja, Id, Gurunanak Birthday, Christmas, etc. Gomoh also boasts of its famous regional singer Kumar Raja ( Mr. Sudipto Chakraborty) son of Mr Haradhan Chakraborty and Late Ms Sefali Chakrabrorty. Kumar Raja is renowned not only all over Jharkhand but also in other parts of Norther India. He has been honored by the State Government of Jharkhand and has won several accolades in his young career. Mr. Anil Kumar Mahto s/o Sri Hem Lal Mahto is one of the Social Worker at Jitpur, Gomoh who has worked for many literacy mission under BGBS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gomoh

Al-Qaida urges attacks in US, Britain to avenge Gaza war, AFP reports asUS President Barack Obama said Afghanistan and Pakistan are the central front in the America's war against terrorism and deteriorating situation in the region poses grave threat to the global security.On the other hand,Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday underwent an 11-hour long complex heart bypass surgery at AIIMS which ‘went off very well’. The coronary artery bypass surgery included replacement of older grafts performed on the Prime Minister in 1990 in the UK, doctors said. Defence Minister A K Antony will perform all the customary duties of the Prime Minister during Republic Day on Monday, the government said on Saturday, clearing confusion over the issue. Earlier PRANAB had been assigned the job!In the absence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who is indisposed, Antony will also receive President Pratibha Patil and Kazakhstan President Nursultan Nazarbayev, who is the Chief Guest for this year's celebrations, at Rajpath. A prominent al-Qaida figure, Abu Yahya al-Libi, on Thursday urged Islamist militants to launch attacks in the West, naming the United States and Britain, to avenge Israel's onslaught on Gaza!Meanwhile, China dismisses US remark on currency manipulation!A top official at China's central bank has dismissed US Treasury Secretary-designate Timothy Geithner's comment that President Barack Obama believes Beijing is "manipulating" its currency, state media said on Saturday. Su Ning, a deputy governor of China's central bank, was cited as saying by the official Xinhua News Agency that the remarks were "not in line with the facts."


West Bengal BRAHAMINICAL HEGEMONY hailed the KULIN Brahmin from KEERNAHAR, PRANAB MUKHERJEE as Acting prime Minister. It reminds me the AMUSING INCIDENT of BOMB EXPLOSION in the BATHROOM of PRANAB Mukherjee, then sidelined after his claim to PRIME MINISTER was superseded by no one else than RAJIV GANDHI after the assasination of Indira Gandhi. PRANAB is working as DEFACTO PRIME MINISTER, true, but apart from his CASTE IDENTITY he has also a NATIONALITY Identity! He is Bengali! Gandhi and Nehru marginalised Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose just addressing the NATIONALITY question in another sense. CR DAS, FAZLUL HAQ and Netaji, apart from MD. ALI JINNAH had been the leaders of UNITED INDIA who cared most to keep the GEOGRAPHY and Cultural UNITY of South asia intact, which was quite against the interest of the PUNE and kashmiri Brahmins! Had Bengal and PUNJAB been united, had Bengal, Maharashtra and Punjableaders worked togetehr to save the indigenous aboriginal people, neither India would have been divided nor would we have been PREDESTINED to be EJECTED out of HOME, Land,Livelihod and Life. United bengal and United India would have changed the Political demography throwing a MUSLIM DALIT leadership at the helms, but it would have been more likely that the leader would have been Bengali or Punjabi or Marathi! Nehru and thereafter emerging all Primemisters and the projected faces of Prime Ministership would have disappeared. But poor Bengalies, practicing SCIENTIFIC Untouchibility in its CRUELEST form do engage in DAY DREAM to lead INDIA as Bengali nationality, which in fact is nothing but West Bengal based Kulin Brahmin caste Hindu manusmriti nationality and it may not be compared with even bangladeshi Bangla Nationality! Bengali media and Intelligentsia were overjoyed with the prospect of Jyoti Basu becoming parime Minister of India. But the wait for the RED STAR in Indian destiny was never to be fulfilled. Ananbazar Group, the greatest foe of Jyoti Basu, for which Sunil Gangopaddhyay reported exclusively on Marichjhanpi genocide in basu regime, mourned for the HIMALAYAN BLUNDER and kept the issue alive even today!

India on Saturday signed a civil nuclear pact with Kazakhstan under which the uranium-rich Central Asian country will supply much-needed fuel to atomic plants in the country. India also signed four other pacts, including an Extradition Treaty, in the presence of President Pratibha Patil and her Kazakh counterpart Nursultan Nazarbayev. Patil oversaw the proceedings of inking of the four pacts as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was indisposed. Kazakhstan will provide uranium and related products under the Memorandum of Understanding between Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) and KazAtomProm. The MoU was signed by NPCIL CMD S K Jain and KazAtomProm President Moukhtar Dzhakishev.

See this report published in The Telegraph, Kolkata:
FM’ Pranab to stand in
RADHIKA RAMASESHAN

Mukherjee
New Delhi, Jan. 23: Pranab Mukherjee will stand in for Manmohan Singh till the Prime Minister recovers, fulfilling designated as well as unstated duties and responsibilities.

The new task will be in addition to Mukherjee’s current roles as foreign minister, the leader of the Lok Sabha, the president of the Bengal Congress and the head of over 30 groups of ministers.

“It has always been a tradition that when the Prime Minister is away, the CCPA (cabinet committee on political affairs) takes key political decisions. Whoever is the seniormost minister officiates on his (the Prime Minister’s) behalf and that is me,” Mukherjee said.

Among the last orders signed by the Prime Minister before he left home at 1.30pm for the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) was to unbundle finance ministership on Mukherjee.

However, Mukherjee has not been placed fully in the saddle. A communiqué issued by the President’s office said Mukherjee would hold the “additional charge” of the finance ministry “until the recovery of the Prime Minister from medical treatment”.

Sources said Mukherjee would not be referred to as officiating or working Prime Minister as the Constitution doesn’t provide for such a post. He will continue to function from his official chamber in South Block. It is not clear if officials in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) will report to Mukherjee. “The internal arrangements are being worked out,” an official said.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090124/jsp/frontpage/story_10435420.jsp



In this context, the MYSTERY of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose remaining unsolved even in six decades, should be analysed!

Railway minister Lalu Prasad today paid a befitting tribute to Netaji by renaming Gomoh railway station, 35km from Dhanbad, as Subhas Chandra Bose Junction.The Telegraph, Kolakta reports.Addressing a large gathering in Gomoh, the Union minister hailed Subhas Bose as one of the greatest leaders of the freedom movement. Had it not been for Netaji’s Azad Hind Fauj, today’s generation would have never had savoured freedom, he said.

“By renaming this station as Subhas Chandra Bose Junction, the country is paying a small tribute to a great national hero, who sacrificed his life to give us Independence. During the last few years of his life, he had been to Gomoh,” the RJD leader said.Though Lalu, who arrived by train, kept his audience waiting for almost two hours, not many complained. In his rustic style, he heaped praises on Netaji, Chandrashekhar Azad, Sukhdev and others, and won roaring applause.He met senior railway officials, but did not divulge much on what he discussed with them. The minister was given a rousing welcome by the students of Kendriya Vidyalaya and members of Bharat Scouts and Guides. Impressed, Lalu even gave away token awards to the participants of a cultural programme organised in his honour.

GOMOH happened to be my Weekly Destination while I stayed in Dhanbad.

I have some very good friends based in Gomoh. sunil and manoj were Lohiyaites. P narayan had been an EMINRENT Trade union activist. Tapan Bhowmic was an editor of a Hindi Little Mag. Besides the famous four we had a group of friends in Gomoh. On every weekly OFF, I would go to GOMOH travelling by any First class RLY Compartment as RLY staffs always accompanied us. We would sit in the Waiting Room or in the Canteen ad it would have been an All day affair barring the LUNCH BREAK.

I liked GOMOH because of its excellent TOPOGRAPHY reminding me my Nainital! The parasnath hills were on the back ground and we had so many HILLOCKS around full of GREEN.

We would discuss Politics, Economics and Literature at length.All of us had been associated with Jharkhand Movement. We had to deal with Mining, Mines and coalfields which were my topics as I was involved in investigations in Mining affairs in Coalfields and Dainik Awaz provided me a Page at least daily. I nearly enjoyed an ICON status as a journalist in those days of primitive career!

One Pradeep Bannerjee was our close friend who used to live in OLD Station RLY colony. I was almost a family memeber. Pradeep was always ailing. He would get admitted in the Hospitol often. he was known clubbed with Judhisthir mahato, who was kiled.

Pradeepda had a beautiful sister in law named MAUSHAMI. She had just appeared the High school exam while she got married to a FRAUD who deserted her. She settled with pradeepda. We all had soft corner for her. She had been very close to me. But I was engaged to a GIRL named NANDITA in Kolkata at the time. Nandita was the second daughter of an EX Police Inspector in Lala bazar, Kolkata. Her Uncle was a DOCTOR in Central school. We all were looking for a suitable match for Maushami. My GOMOH friends suggested me to accept her. I had no way. Later, the ENGAGEMENT with Nandita was withdrwan as she was very proud of herkith and kin in higher places and I was a simple journalist.I thought it better to end the relationship as I have chosen the Way of STRUGGLE. My father was very disturbed with this decision. but I was quite RELUCTANT as I had always been with my stance on any given issue. meanwhile, maushami got married nd she is well settled with her family.
Hindi Poet Madan Kashyap and eminent critic Sri Narayan sameer, Novelist Manmohan Pathak, little mag Editor BB Sharma and other intellectuals also visited Gomoh with us so often!

Mind you, BRAHAMINICAL Hindutva remains the HEGEMONY in south Asia and it is now identified with GLOBAL ZIONISM. But zionists and brahmins do fight among themselves to capture power. Thus, it remains always the DILECTICS in between Brahaminical Ruling Hegemony and Brahaminical resistance Hegemony. Thus, we have to bear so many Political parties and Ideologies. But no one may dare to go beyond Brahaminical interests as No US President may dare to cross the LIMITS of AMERICANISM, may it be a Black Afro American President, nevertheless.

Thus, PRACHAND, being the SUPREMO of MAOIST Revolution in Nepal heralding the Demise of MONARCHY HINDUTVA, could not cross the limits of his own personal identity as BRAHMIN and BRAHMIN only. Objectivity also demands to accept that he could not RESIST the ZIONIST HINDUTVA GLOBAL in Nepal. Hence,Nepal's Maoist prime minister has temporarily reinstated a group of sacked Indian priests at the Himalayan nation's holiest Hindu Nepalese demonstrators chant anti-government slogans near Pashupati temple in Kathmandu.The secular Maoists, who run the country after winning elections last year, ended centuries of tradition last week when they replaced the Indians with Nepalese priests. BJP on Saturday reacted strongly to the removal of Indian priests from the Pashupatinath temple, with party chief Rajnath Singh calling
up Nepal's leadership to urge that the tradition should not be meddled with. Singh said the removal of the priests had hurt the sentiments of Indians and spoke to Nepal's president and prime minister to convey his concern.
"I had a telephonic conversation with President Ram Baran Yadav and PM Prachanda and sought immediate intervention to resolve the ongoing crisis. They assured me that they will look into the issue and take necessary steps," Singh told reporters.

Singh said it was a matter of grave concern for people with faith in the temple as for the first time prayers could not be held in 300 years because of the removal of the priests.

The three-century-old norm of employing Indian priests -- having ancestral roots in Kerala and Andhra Pradesh -- in the Pashupatinath temple is said to have been broken by Maoist government in Nepal, which has appointed Nepalese priests instead.

Singh said as per information, the priests were removed despite a stay order from the Nepal Supreme Court.

The BJP chief charged the Maoist regime with undermining Indo-Nepal cultural ties. "By removing the Indian priests, the Maoist forces have not only dealt a body blow to the centuries old tradition of the temple but are also trying to undermine the inherent Indo-Nepalese cultural ties," the BJP chief said.

But Nepal’s prime minister Prachanda told the national assembly late on Wednesday that he had ordered officials "to manage normal worship at the temple by the same Indian priests for the time being."

Riot police were deployed at the temple on the banks of the Bagmati river in Kathmandu after local priests and their supporters launched heated protests against the Maoists.

The move to reinstate the Indian priests was greeted with jubilation.

Remembering Netaji: His love for India, mystery ‘death’ in plane crash

New Delhi, Jan 24 (IANS) Did Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose really die in a mysterious plane crash in Taiwan in 1945? And what about the letter written by him found in the KGB archives dated 1946 saying that he had safely reached the then Soviet Union; and also the findings of the Mukherjee Commission saying that there had been no plane crash at the Taipei airport around the time the plane is supposed to have crashed.

These were some of the questions raised by speakers at a function held to commemorate the freedom fighter on his 112th birth anniversary Friday evening in Gulmohar Park Club here.

Captain Shobharam Tokas, who was one of Netaji’s bodyguards from the Indian National Army (INA) that he set up to fight against the occupying British, is certain that Netaji did not die in the Aug 18, 1945, plane crash.

‘No, he certainly did not die in the plane crash,’ said the 89-year-old Tokas. ‘How is it then that Captain Habibur Rehman (a close associate of Netaji who was also on the Japanese military aircraft on that fateful day) came away unscathed? His uniform did not have a scratch, but Netaji’s body was said to have burnt to ashes. Is it possible, No,’ said Tokas.

There is also no photograph of the crashed aircraft or the body of Netaji, he said, adding that the government is deliberately trying to suppress the truth relating to the freedom fighter.

A copy of a letter written by Netaji was discovered in the KGB archives in Russia after the disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991. ‘The letter was dated 1946, more than a year after he was supposed to have been killed in the mystery crash,’ said Forward Bloc general secretary G. Devarajan.

‘What happened to Netaji after that is not known,’ said Devarajan, adding that probably Russia, under a post-World War II agreement with Britain to exchange war criminals, had sent him to that country.

The government has also rejected the Justice Mukherjee Commission report, tabled in parliament in 2006, which said that there had been no plane crash at Taipei airport either on Aug 18, 1945, or a week before and after that day, said Devarajan.

He also said that there are more than 7,000 files in the government’s archives containing the correspondence of Netaji with the Indian leaders then, including Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru, and also with leaders of foreign countries, but they are not being made public.

‘We have asked the government to make these letters public. We have a right to know the contents,’ added Devarajan. The Forward Bloc was formed by Netaji in 1939.

He also said that the reference to Netaji in school text books is perfunctory. ‘The government has bypassed his great contribution to the freedom struggle, without which independence from the British would not have been possible.’

Devarajan said during his travels through many villages in north India, he found that the history text books had copious references to Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru, his daughter Indira Gandhi, her two sons, daughter-in-law Sonia Gandhi and also her daughter Priyanka Vadra and her children, with photographs, ‘but except for two lines on Netaji, there is nothing’.

‘Netaji was a great thinker and very farsighted. He had already thought of a Planning Committee for an independent India, which would address issues like the country’s burgeoning population, problems of farmers, of unemployment, of illiteracy and women’s issues. Though he formed the Planning Committee while he was president of the Indian National Congress in the 1930s, he made Jawaharlal Nehru its chairman. That was his humility,’ said Devarajan.

When Netaji formed his Azad Hind government in exile in 1943 from Singapore, it had all the trappings of a proper government - with portfolios distributed, including a women’s affairs ministry and a propaganda ministry, what would be known today as an information and broadcasting ministry. The government also had a currency.

‘Nine countries gave recognition to the Azad Hind government, including Russia, China, Italy, France and Japan. He opened embassies abroad - such was the force of his movement for a free India, but our children are taught nothing of his great political thought,’ Devarajan rued.

The Forward Bloc has been asking the government to name Jan 23 as ‘Desh Prem Divas’ (Patriotism day) to instil among the younger generation a fiery love for the motherland as Netaji had and spread awareness about him, his thoughts and his deeds, he said.

The sense of adventure, or ‘romanch’, associated with Netaji makes him the most attractive and enduring of all freedom fighters, said Subhash Vasishta, convenor of the Gulmohar Park Study Circle, which kicked off with the symposium in memory of Netaji Friday evening.



Mystery over Netaji’s death: Govt rejects panel findings




Posted: 2006-05-18 00:00:00+05:30 IST
Updated: May 18, 2006 at 0000 hrs IST

New Delhi, May 17: The mystery over Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s disappearance continued with the Centre rejecting the Justice MK Mukherjee Commission’s contention that Netaji did not die in the plane crash in 1945.

The government tabled the findings of the one-man commission, appointed by the previous NDA regime in 1999, along with its action taken report (ATR) in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. The commission had submitted its report on November 8 last year.

The Commission concluded that Bose “is dead,” “he did not die in the plane crash, as alleged,” “the ashes in the Japanese temple are not of Netaji” and that “in the absence of any evidence a positive answer cannot be given” to the terms of reference.

The views of the government were given in the ATR along with the three-volume report of the commission set up to inquire into the circumstances concerning the departure of Netaji from Bangkok in August 1945, his reported death in an air crash and subsequent developments.

The ATR, tabled by minister of state for home S Ragupathy, said the government had examined the commission’s report “in detail and has not agreed with the findings.”

The mystery had deepened with Justice Mukherjee having revealed some months back that the Taiwan government had informed the panel that there was no record of any air crash at Taipei between August 14 and September 20. Netaji was believed to have been killed in an air crash in Taipei on August 18, 1945.

“It can safely and surely be presumed that he is no more,” the panel said even though its attention was drawn to a photograph annexed by an affidavit that a sadhu of 124 years was “found living” in 2000.

http://www.financialexpress.com/news/mystery-over-netajis-death-govt-rejects-panel-findings/169711/



Mukherjee Commission and the Mystery of Netaji’s Disappearence



By: Dr.Dipak Basu
June 03, 2006
Views expressed here are author’s own and not of this website. Full disclaimer is at the bottom.

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(The author is a Professor in International Economics in Nagasaki University, Japan)
Mukherjee Commission did its job perfectly within the limits of the legal formalities and as a result the main question was not answered: what has happened to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose when he had embarked upon his journey from Bangkok on 14th or 15th August 1945.

The whole nation should be grateful to Anuj Dhar of Hindustan Times and Prof.Purabi Roy of Jadavpur University for compiling and discovering some information that may help us to imagine that fateful journey of Netaji. Dr.Hirendra Narayan Sarkar’s book , ’A Homage to Netaji: a Commentary on his life & Activities’ is also a helpful addition. The affidavit of Prof.Purabi Roy to the Mukherkjee Commission is in the website created by Anuj Dhar: www.hindustantime.com/news/specials/Netaji/purabi.htm.

Nehru and Netaji:

Although some politicians are trying to put the blame on Jawaharlal Nehru for not trying to uncover the mystery, Nehru was at best a helpless spectator not an actor in this matter.

When the Khosla commission was appointed in 1970, Shyamlal Jain from Meerut gave his statements to the commission. He was asked by Nehru to come to Asif Ali’s residence with the typewriter on 26/ 27 December 1945. He was given a letter to type; with a vague signature at its bottom. It had the following content:

“Netaji reached Dairen in Manjuria at 1:30 pm on 23rd August 1945, from Saigon by plane. The plane was a Japanese bomber. He had plenty of gold with him in bars and ornaments. After disembarking, he ate banana and drank tea. He and 4 others, one of them a Japanese officer Shidei; got into a jeep and went towards the Russian border. After about 3 hours, the jeep came back and gave the pilot instruction to fly back to Tokyo.”

Nehru asked Jain to type a letter to the then British prime minister Clements Attlee. The letter had the following content

Mr Clements Attlee

British Prime Minister

10 Downing Street, London

Dear Mr Attlee,

I understand from most reliable source that Subhash Chandra Bose, your war criminal, has been allowed to enter Russian territory by Stalin. This is a clear treachery and betrayal of faith by the russians as Russia has been an ally of the British- Americans, which she should not have done.

Please take care of it and do what you consider proper and fit.

Yours sincerely,

Jawaharlal Nehru

On August 23, 1945, the home member of the Indian government, Sir R.F.Mudie prepared a report (Ref: Top Secret Letter no. 57 dated 23 August 1945) as to how to handle Netaji. It was addressed to Sir E.Jenkins. The viceroy submitted this report to the English cabinet. ‘Russia may accept Bose under special circumstances. If that is the case, we shouldn’t demand him back’ was the cabinet’s decision on this. After considering this, the British prime minister Clements Attlee decided ‘Let him remain where he is now’. This decision was taken in October 1945. It clearly indicates that he was alive even in Oct 1945.

In 1946, Nehru met Mountbatten in Singapore. On no occasion after this meeting, Nehru has been reported of praising the INA. He had agreed to the demand from the Indians in Singapore to place wreath and flowers at Netaji’s martyr dome there, but withdrew quite dramatically on the 11th hour.

Hari Vishnu Kamath M.P. demanded a probe into Netaji's absconding in the parliament in 1952. Nehru didn’t agree to this at first! (Ref: Page 103, Annexure 21, Appendix I to Parliamentary Debates, Fifth Session 1952). When those who demanded the probe made amendments for a non-official commission under the great Dr Radhavinod Pal, who was one of the 11 Judges in the Tokyo trial of the Japanese War-time prime minister Tojo and his associates in 1948; all of a sudden, Nehru incepted the Shah Nawaz commission on 5th April 1956! What is most interesting was the commission was neither allowed to visit the place of accident nor did the government seek the permission of the Formosa government.

It is important to know that Shah Nawaz Khan, the commanding officer in the Kohima front had close contact with his brother, an officer in the British-Indian army in Kohima and has revealed the codes and the military plans of the Japanese and the Azad Hind Army. As a result Netaji removed him from that position and sent him to Burma. Shah Nawaz Khan became a Pakistani citizen but was invited by Nehru to be a minister in India and to investigate about Netaji, whom he betrayed during the Azad Hind Army’s campaign in Kohima.

Netaji’s journey from Bangkok to Manchuria:

In 1952, S.A.Aiyer, a senior government official and Nehru's friend, visited Tokyo, after which he handed over a personal note to Nehru. The letter as it is, is given below:
“This time I could gather a very important information. Col.Tada told me that after the end of the war when Japan surrendered, Terauchi took all responsibility to help Netaji and asked him (Tada) to go to Kaka Bose (His Excellency Bose) and tell him to reach Russian territory - all help will be given to him. It was arranged that Chandra Bose will fly in the plane in which Shidei was going. General Shidei will look after Chandra Bose upto Dairen, and thereafter, he could fall back on his own resources to contact Russians. Japanese would announce to the world that Bose had disappeared from Dairen. That would absolve them of all responsibility in the eyes of the Allies.”

Nehru didn’t inform this to the parliament despite controversies for a long time. He even didn’t hand over his own files on Netaji to the commission. (Ref: Prime Minister’s Special File)

This is the official death certificate of ‘Netaji’ issued by the Health and Hygiene Bureau in Formosa, where it was necessary to produce the death certificate for cremation.
Person died - Ichiro Okura

Date of birth - 1900 April 9

Cause of death - Cardiac arrest

Job - Soldier, temporary

Date of death - 19 August 4:00 pm

Date of permission for cremation - 21 August 1945

Date of cremation - 22 August 1945

Person requesting for the cremation - Dr Thaneoshi Yoshimi; doctor treated

The time of death in Habibur Rahman’s statements to different commissions vary between 5 PM August 18th to 12 AM August 19th, and 4 PM 19 August.

Netaji was reported to be alive even after 1945 by the British intelligence from Teheran and Kabul quoting the Russian embassy officials. This was even stated in the Shah Nawaz commission report (File No. 10/ Mis/ INA-pp 38, 39). Reports of the officers appointed by Mountbatten and McArthur, and the reports of BACIS (British American Counter Intelligence Service) have all completely discarded any possibility of such a plane crash to have happened. They all provided statements that Habibur Rahman hasn’t told the truth; most possibly he has promised Netaji to hide the facts.

The statements by the INA officials, Japanese military officials, British intelligence reports, and The Top Secret Files published by the British government in 1976 all say Netaji was alive in Soviet Russia.

The INA meeting in Kanpur from July 15 to 18, 1947 had requested Nehru to take the INA soldiers in the Indian army. Even Mohammad Ali Jennah kept his word by posting the INA members in his army; but Nehru didn’t.

One of the three members in the Shah Nawaz commission was Netaji's brother Suresh Chandra Bose. He didn’t agree to the report of the commission. He even wrote to Nehru that his brother didn’t reach Taihoku; so he didn’t die there! Nehru wrote back to him; "There is no precise or direct proof of Netaji's death".

Netaji's Confidential Personal Assistant, E.Bhaskaran gave this statement before the Shah Nawaz commission about a letter by Netaji, addressed to John Thivi, a minister in the Azad Hind government, written on 1945 August 17 at 3 am. The letter contains these words:

‘I am writing this letter, because I am going for a long journey. Who knows I won't get into a plane accident.’

The British intelligence has reported that Nehru knew where Netaji was. Nehru took the Foreign Affairs portfolio himself and appointed none other than Vijayalekshmi Pandit as the ambassador to Russia. After her term was over, Dr S.Radhakrishnan became the representative to Russia. Dr Saroj Das of Calcutta University told his friend Dr R.C.Muzumdar that Radhakrishnan had told him that Netaji was in Russia. Radhakrishnan couldn’t come before the Khosla commission due to ill health and treatment in Madras.

Former Indian ambassador Dr Satyanarayana Sinha once met Georgy Mukherjee, son of Abani Mukherjee, one of the founder of the Communist party of India. Georgey Mukherjee told him that his father and Netaji were prisoners in adjacent cells in Siberia. He also told Sinha that Netaji had assumed the name ‘Khilsai Malang’ there.

Abani Mukherjee was the companion of Virendranath Chattopadhyay, brother of Sarojini Naidu, imprisoned in 1937 by Stalin. Both Abanu Mukherjee and Varindranath Chattopadya were killed by Stalin later. Dr Sinha came back to India and reported this fresh news to Nehru. But to his great surprise and frustration, Sinha was unexpectedly scolded by Nehru, and ever since, the relationship between the two deteriorated. Sinha has written this down in his book. He has even described this incident before the Khosla commission.

There are more details in Page 318 of ‘Netaji Dead or Alive?’ by Samar Guha. The Hindu, 25.07.1995 wrote, : ”Prof. (Samar) Guha also wanted the centre to seek documents from Russia, Britain, Japan, and Taiwan. A fresh and thorough investigation is necessary. The Gorbechev regime has allowed access to secret documents under Glasnost. He claimed that Mahatma Gandhi, Jawaharlal Nehru and others were aware of Netaji's imprisonment in the erstwhile Soviet Union after World War II. But they did not want him to return to India as it would wreck the Govt. and the Congress party. He claimed that Jawaharlal Nehru, who had defended the INA leader, became a changed person and never spoke of that Army and Netaji after visiting Singapore in 1946 at the invitation of Lord Louis Mountbatten. The British authorities too had passed on vital information to the Govt. of Clements Attlee about Netaji's disappearance. But the Govt. of India never took up the matter with the British Govt.”

Russian Connection:

It is not known in India that the Soviet Union, along with Japan, Germany, Italy, Imperial China, Hungary, and Romania, has recognized the Azad Hind Government of Netaji and allowed Netaji to open a consulate in Siberian city of Omsk, as the most of the Soviet administrtation was moved to Siberia during the Second World War.

According to Prof.Purabi Roy of Jadavpur University, Netaji went to Manchuria from Singapore and was received in Manchuria by the Consul General of the Azad Hind Government's consulate at Omsk city, Kato Kachu, on August 22-23, 1945. "Kato Kachu was, according to Japanese researchers, actually an Indian. That name was an alias."

Alexander Kolesnikov, a former major-general of the Warsaw Pact, who has accessed the files in Paddolsk Military Archive, situated 40 km from Moscow in October 1996, said that Josef Stalin, the general-secretary of the CPSU, and his cabinet were considering various options to deal with Bose in 1946. During a meeting with an Indian Parliamentary Delegation to the Russian Federation in 1996, he gave a written account of all his findings. The delegation, which included the late Chitta Basu and Sri Jayanta Roy of the Forward Bloc, brought the writing back to India. This account is the basis of the affidavit before the Mukherjee Commission submitted by Prof. Purabi Roy of Jadavpur University who was sent as part of Asiatic Society's three-member team to the Oriental Institute, Moscow to study Indian documents from 1917-1947. Since Paddolsk was out of bounds for her being a foreigner, Kolesnikov was assigned the job. Her findings are:

There are a lot of materials on Subhas bose in the Military Archive in Omsk, where the Free Government of India in Exile (or Azad Hind Government) had a consulate during the Second world War. Just a request from the Government of India would be sufficient for the Russian authority to open that archive. Prof.Purabi Roy wrote to the Government of India about it and as a result her research was terminated by the Indian government and she could not go back to Russia again.

Prof.Purabi Roy found out a report of a KGB agent in Bombay written in 1946 about the political situation in India. The report is saying, "…. it is not possible to work with Nehru or Gandhi, we have to use Subhas Bose”. That implies in 1946 Subhas Bose was still alive.

The Investigation Commission of Justice Mukherjee, initiated at the time of the Prime Minister Vajpayee, was cut short and the Justice Mukherjee was not allowed to go to archives in Russia as the Government of India refused to request the Russian government to allow Mukherjee Commission to do so. Kamal Pandey, the then Home Secretary has refused to give any access to Justice Mukherjee of the documents still in the hands of the Government of India. Shah Nawaz Khan Commission and the Khosla Commission have never visited Russia or Taiwan to investigate, they never sought any help from the Soviet authority either.

BBC World Service has reported on 4th February 2005 that according to the Taiwan Government there were no plane crashes at Taipei between 14 August and 20 September 1945; thus Netaji could not have died on 18th August 1945.

On 14th August 1945, Japan has surrendered. There were literary hundreds of Allied battleship and aircraft carriers all around Japan and USA had complete control over the airspace of Japan. It was impossible for any Japanese military aircraft to go from Taipei to Tokyo without being attacked by the US. Why on earth Netaji would like to go back to Tokyo to surrender himself to the U.S army who would definitely hand him over to the British to be killed “ on the spot” as demanded by Lord. Mountbatten! Given the fact that Japan had no hostility with the USSR during the whole of the Second World War, it was only natural for Netaji to go back to the Soviet Union, where he went first in 1941 to seek the help of Stalin to liberate India.

Two Alternative Possibilities:

From the Russian archives it is possible to trace Netaji up to 1948; thereafter his whereabouts are unknown. After 1955, when Stalin was denounced in the Soviet Union, and the victims of Stalin were rehabilitated, there was no reason for the Soviet authority to hide the facts on Subhas Bose. Indian government has never asked the Soviet Union or Russia in this matter. Mukherjee Commission was not allowed to touch this matter either. As a result, we still do not know the whether Netaji was directly killed by Stalin in the Soviet Union sometime after 1948.

However, from Anuj Dhar’s website another possibility has emerged. There are reports that people have seen Netaji as a prisoner of British military officers in Quetta in 1948, who took him away to the ‘no-mans land’ in the border between Baluchistan and Iran, most possibly for execution. Both General Wavell and Lord. Mountbatten wanted to kill Netaji on the spot without giving him any chance of huge publicity through any legal trial. The question is whether Stalin has exchanged Netaji for some very important Russian prisoner in the hands of the British. One such prisoner was General Vlasov of the Soviet Army who in 1942 became a prisoner of war in the hand of the German army. General Vlasov later while being a prisoner wrote a leaflet calling on the officers of the Red Army and the Russian intelligentsia to overthrow the Soviet regime of Stalin whom he accused of being guilty of all the disasters, which had befallen Russia. General Vlasov had formed an army of more than 200,000 men to liberate Russia from Stalin but was forced to surrender to the British in 1945 after the defeat of Germany. In 1948, General Vlasov and his men were sent back by the British to Stalin. General Vlasov and most of his men were executed. It is not improbable that Stalin gave Netaji to the British in exchange for General Vlasov, and British have executed Netaji in the Baluchistan-Iran border. This question was not examined by the Mukherjee Commission, as it had no access to the Russian archive.

Conclusion:

The Mukherjee Commission has raised a lot of questions but no solid answer except for the one, which is well known. Netaji could not have died in August 18 in Taipei. Japanese authority had propagated the story to safeguard the life of Netaji from the British and American intelligence services. Habibur Rahman, as loyal companion of Netaji, kept his promise not to reveal the truth. As a result, the story of the aircraft accident became the “established truth” and the facts remain buried. However, the behaviour of the India government is still a mystery. There is no particular reason why the government is so shy to ask the Russian authority to unearth the facts.

Dr.Dipak Basu




http://www.ivarta.com/columns/OL_060603.htm

Plea for Unraveling Netaji Bose Death Mystery





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To: Supreme Court Of India


Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose is one of the legendary figures of Indian freedom struggle, who ignited the Indian mind with his passion and patriotism. He established INA (Indian National Army) and led the armed struggle against Britain to unshackle Mother India of the Imperial bondage and slavery. Netaji, who coined ‘Jai Hind', influenced every Indian with his ideas. Be it the Royal Indian Navy Mutiny in 1946 or the events following it, Netaji's influence is clearly palpable.


It has been reported that Netaji Subhash Bose died in an air crash in Taipei. Doubts have been cast about the air crash right from the beginning. Numerous reports, documents and other forms of evidence suggested that the air crash story was planted for subverting the attention of Allied troops, which were on a hunt for Netaji. The demand for unraveling this mystery has been gaining strength since the late 1940’s. Finally, succumbing to public pressure, the Government of India has instituted two commissions of enquiry in 1956 and 1974 respectively to probe the alleged death of Netaji. Both the enquiries turned out to be a mere eye wash before public. In spite of the existence of several evidences obtained through the interrogation of the Hospital authorities, inspection of the site of the air crash, testimonies of the air field authorities, intelligence officers to prove that the air crash never existed, the enquiries concluded that Netaji died in the air crash, with out proper backing and reasoning. The Government of India headed by the Janata Party, has rejected the reports of these enquiry commissions.


Mounting public pressure and a directive from the Calcutta High Court that the death mystery of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose be resolved once for all, compelled the Government of India to set up the third enquiry commission headed by Justice Mukherjee. This commission has unraveled several important and astonishing facts. Taipei authorities have officially conveyed to the Mukherjee commission that the air crash supposed to have killed Netaji Bose never existed. Some Indian researchers have done extensive research on Russian intelligence agency (KGB) archives, which have been declassified in early 90’s. According to Indian researchers, the files of the KGB have several leads to prove that Netaji was in Russia after 1945. Documents of the US National archive and records administration have also reinforced the fact that Netaji didn't die in 1945.


The current UPA Government has decided to terminate the tenure Mukherjee commission, stating that the commission has been a burden on the Indian exchequer and that it has been a waste of public money. It is such a pity that the leaders of the day describe the quest to unearth the mystery behind one of the greatest heroes of the soil as waste of money.


Mukherjee commission, which is very near to unfolding the mystery, has been requesting access to the files of Russian Intelligence agencies (which have been declassified) and permission to visit some places including Russia. The commission should be given some more time to complete the enquiry and put the matter to rest once for all, which it is very near to accomplish. It is either now or never. Many of the people, who can provide reliable first hand information, have already perished. If we don't act now, even the few sources of reliable information will cease to exist in due course of time and any attempt by further generations to unravel the truth would prove futile.


It has been 60 years since the mystery regarding the death of one of the greatest sons of Mother India has erupted. It is time we solve this puzzle. It is better late than never.


This is an earnest request to the Supreme Court of India to direct the Government of India to extend the tenure of Justice Mukherjee commission and take all necessary steps to resolve Netaji Bose death mystery.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned





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The Plea for Unraveling Netaji Bose Death Mystery Petition to Supreme Court Of India was created by and written by Ravi Teja Edpuganti (raviteja.e@gmail.com). This petition is hosted here at www.PetitionOnline.com as a public service. There is no endorsement of this petition, express or implied, by Artifice, Inc. or our sponsors. For technical support please use our simple Petition Help form.
Netaji's Contribution To Independence Struggle

International Netaji Center (INC) in USA aims to provide comprehensive information on the role played by Netaji in India's independence struggle from abroad. However, before presenting information and analyses in this area, INC provides the following summary review of Netaji's activities in India that contributed substantially to India's freedom:

Netaji played an unique role in India's freedom struggle from within during 1921-1941 -- as chronicled below.

During 1922-25, Netaji was a major leader in the Congress 'Swarajya' (or self-rule) group; this group exposed the sham post-war period (1920) British offer of dyarchy or 'joint rule,' which other Indian politicians accepted or agreed to accept. This led to a more favorable political concession from the British in 1928-29.

During 1925-38, Netaji was the leader in Bengal Congress Party and led Bengal in working committee of the national Congress Party. Throughout this period, he supported national labor movement, fought internal communal forces and fully won the trust of the minority groups in India. No other Indian national leader achieved all these major objectives in such a short period.

In 1930, Netaji persuaded the Congress Party in its national meeting to adopt a resolution demanding 'complete independence ‘ from the British colonial rule . On his leadership January 26 was declared as India's Independence Day , marking this demand. This progressive step pre-empted then prevalent thinking in the Congress Party that the British, on its own, would grant independence to India in due time. It also brought back to the Party high popular support from the Indian masses .

In 1936, Gandhiji publicly stated that he could not think of a better person than Netaji to lead the Congress party through the prevailing critical period.

In 1937 and again in 1938, Netaji was elected to lead India as the President of the Congress Party. He was acknowledged as the spokesman of the Party and of the nation during this period, both in India and in Europe including England. No other leaders, except Gandhiji, reached this pinnacle of eminence during 1921-41.

2. Netaji's contemporaries accepted Netaji as a major leader of the freedom struggle.

The British rulers accepted with serious concern Netaji as the most dynamic and influential political leader in all sections and religious groups of the Indian population. This realization induced them to keep him in prison for prolonged than any other leader during 1921-41.

The British imprisoned Netaji to unhealthy and notorious prisons , inside and outside of India, even when his health was poor; and no other Indian politicians received this harsh treatment during 1921-41 , since the British considered him as the number one enemy of the colonial interest in India and to its foundation throughout the world.

The British understood that Netaji's ideas always inspired young idealists to fight stronger for freedom; thus, they considered Netaji as the most fearsome adversary.

Political leaders of the largest minority group, Muslims, acknowledged and appreciated the leading role played by Netaji in India politics. Even Mohamed Ali Jinnah, who is acknowledged by all as the Father of Pakistan, had so much trust and regard for Netaji that he was willing to give up his idea of a religiously divided India , if Netaji led the nation. Muslim leaders of India's eastern states echoed the same sentiment during the thirties.

Netaji provided directions, time and again, to all the political groups of his time to formulate their policies toward freedom struggle.

It is Netaji who formulated the two dominant battle cries in India's freedom struggle: (a) "complete independence (1930)," and (b) "quit India (1938-42)."

Between 1938 and 1941 , during the second world war , Netaji saw the opportunity of gaining India’s independence by forcing the British colonial power to come terms with India against India’s consent to help them in the war. The Congress Party initially disagreed with this view . But Netaji’s arm struggle in 1942 from outside India and its reaction with the Indian masses changed this attitude and pushed Congress to adopt goals proposed by Netaji years earlier.

Netaji's contributions to India's independence struggle from within and from abroad are also detailed in the following articles:

"Bose Hastened Independence Struggle" by Prof. Hazara Singh

"Subhas Chandra Bose: a biography sketch" by Jyotsna Kamat



Death of Subhas Chandra Bose
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His last undisputed picture that was taken on the morning of August 17, 1945 in Saigon
The alleged death of Subhas Chandra Bose, the supreme commander of Azad Hind Fauz and Free India Legion in a plane crash in Taiwan on August 18, 1945, has long been the subject of dispute. Recently an Indian central commission of inquiry confirmed one popular version, that Bose's death was staged to facilitate an escape to the USSR.

Contents
[hide]
1 Introduction
2 Shah Nawaz Committee
3 Justice GD Khosla Commission
3.1 Rejection of Shah Nawaz, Khosla reports
4 Mukherjee Commission
5 Bose mystery in contemporary India
6 References
6.1 Reports submitted by various commissions
6.2 External links



[edit] Introduction
Saurabh, a prominent leader of the Indian independence movement against the British Raj in India and a general of the Imperial Japanese army Tsunamasa Shidei were reported to be flying to Tokyo, Japan when the alleged plane crash occurred at Matsuyama aerodrome in Taihoku, northern Formosa (now the Republic of China, or Taiwan). The news was withheld by Japanese government for five days before it was announced by Japanese news agency Domei.[1] The Allied forces took the Japanese news as a ploy. The then Viceroy of India, Field Marshal Archibald Wavell, is reported to have noted in his diary that "I wonder if the Japanese announcement of Subhash Chandra Bose's death in an air-crash is true. I suspect it very much, it is just what should be given out if he meant to go underground."



A newpaper clip reporting the death of Netaji and General Shidei
The matter was looked into by several allied intelligence teams and soon holes in the Japanese version became apparent.[citation needed] A crack team of Intelligence Bureau found out that Bose was heading for the USSR with the Japanese assistance.[citation needed]

The findings of the intelligence teams seem to have not confirmed the Japanese announcement. For as late as October 1946, the Government of British India refused to confirm the death of Bose.

After India's independence, the matter was looked into by three official panels formed by the government of India following the public demands. These panels were: Shah Nawaz Committee, Justice GD Khosla Commission & Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry. The first two upheld the Taiwan crash version, whereas the third negated it.

However, it has also been alleged at various times that the Indian government and political leadership was aware that Bose may have been alive, and according to one theory, in captivity in Soviet Union,[2] [3] but chose to ignore or actively collaborate to suppress this information after Independence.[4][5]


[edit] Shah Nawaz Committee
Main article: Shah Nawaz Committee
In April 1956, the Jawaharlal Nehru Government formed a committee headed by Shah Nawaz Khan. Khan had earlier risen to the rank of Lt Col in the Second Indian National Army, before he was captured by allied troops after the fall of Azad Hind and was one of the three charged with treason in the the Red Fort Trial. He was thus seen as an appropriate person to head the inquiry. Two other members of the inquiry commission were SN Mitra and Suresh Chandra Bose, Bose's elder brother. The committee's report that Bose had indeed died in Taipei became disputed due to several reasons. The most important among them was the dissientient report of Suresh Bose. Suresh Bose refused to agree with the findings of his colleagues and accused them and the Government of India of trying to coerce him into agreeing with their views.


[edit] Justice GD Khosla Commission
Main article: Khosla Commission
Consequently, in June 1970 the Government of India formed a judicial commission headed by Justice GD Khosla, former Chief Justice of Punjab High Court. The decision followed years of lobbying by Indian lawmaker, most notable among them were Professor Samar Guha and Amiya Nath Bose, Subhas Bose's nephew. Unlike Shah Nawaz, GD Khosla visited but refused to interact with the ROC Government. Much before the commission's report was made public June 1974, it came under assault of Samar Guha. This report also stated that the Bose had died in Taiwan.


[edit] Rejection of Shah Nawaz, Khosla reports
After Emergency was lifted in India, Samar Guha fought a political battle in Indian Parliament, where the matter of Bose's death was debated in 1977-78. On August 28, 1978 Prime Minister Morarji Desai stated that there were "various important contradictions in the testimony of the (mostly Japanese) witnesses" to Bose's death. And that "some further contemporary official documentary records have also become available", making the Government of India think that the conclusions reached by GD Khosla and Shah Nawaz Khan were not "decisive".


[edit] Mukherjee Commission
Main article: Mukherjee Commission


The copy of the death certificate in the crematorium records which refers to the alleged corpse of Netaji as being of one Okara Ichiro
In 1999, following a court order, the Government of India formed Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry. It was headed by Justice (rtd) MK Mukherjee of the Supreme Court of India. The commission perused hundreds of files on Bose's death drawn from several countries and also visited Japan, Russia and Taiwan.

Overturning the findings of previous panels, this commission's findings were that the news of Bose's death in Taipei were a cover-up for his escape to the USSR. The Commission, however, stated that they could not confirm Bose's presence in the USSR for want of evidence.

The Mukherjee Commission submitted its report to Indian Home Minister Shivraj Patil on November 8, 2005. The report was tabled in the Indian Parliament on May 17, 2006. However, the Indian Government rejected the findings of the Commission].[6]


[edit] Bose mystery in contemporary India
Some documents perhaps connected to Bose's death remained classified to this day.[7] Several Indian ministries, including the Indian Prime Minister's Office, have refused to make public the documents under the Right to Information Act on the ground that their disclosure will affect India's relations with foreign countries. [8]


[edit] References
^ http://www.hindustantimes.in/news/specials/Netaji/images/a7.gif Reported Death of Subhash Bose. The Hindustan Time. August 25, 1945. HT Archives.
^ http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/specials/Netaji/images/nov_17_70.gif Radhakrishnan met Netaji in Moscow, says witness. The Hindustan Times, November 17, 1970. URL Accessed on 11-Aug-06.
^ Hindustantimes.com - the name India trusts for news
^ http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/specials/Netaji/images/jan_23_71.gif Gandhi, others had agreed to hand over Netaji. Hindustan Times, January 23, 1971. URL Accessed on 11-Aug-06
^ http://www.tribuneindia.com/2005/20050612/spectrum/main1.htm Interview with Capt. Lakshmi Sahgal. The Tribune India, Spectrum Suppl Sunday, June 12, 2005 URL accessed 09-Aug-06
^ http://www.guardian.co.uk/india/story/0,,1777155,00.html Fate of Indian war leader thrown into doubt by new report, The Guardian. London. May 18, 2006. URL accessed on 27/03/2007
^ http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/002200703080916.htm Netaji's ashes still in Renkoji temple, The Hindu. March 8, 2007
^ PMO refuses to furnish data on Netaji

[edit] Reports submitted by various commissions
Shah Nawaz Committee Report
The Dissentient Report
Khosla Commission Report
Mukherjee Commission Report

[edit] External links
"Taiwan rejects Bose crash theory", BBC News (2005-02-04). Retrieved on 5 August 2008.
Japanese pictures of the reported crash in Taipei
Mystery over India freedom hero
Amartya Sen goes by Anita Pfaff's view
'I saw Subhash Chandra Bose's burnt body'
‘Govt has destroyed evidence about Netaji’s death’
RTI makes Netaji rise from 'ashes'
R&AW has no information on disappearance of Netaji
PMO refuses data on Netaji despite RTI appeal
Hindustan Times probe
[hide] v • d • e Subhas Chandra Bose

Indian Independence movement · Presidency College · Scottish Church College · Fitzwilliam College · Indian National Congress · C.R. Das · Sarat Bose · Gandhi · Nehru · Purna Swaraj · Bengal Volunteers · Emilie Schenkl · Anita Bose-Pfaff · Forward Bloc · Abwehr · Third Reich · Adam von Trott zu Solz · Special Bureau for India · Azad Hind Radio · Indische Legion · Abid Hasan · Hiroshi Oshima · U-180 · I-29 · Pacific War · Hideki Tojo · H Iwakuro · Hikari Kikan · Rash Behari Bose · Indian Independence League · Azad Hind · Indian National Army · Shah Nawaz Khan · Rani of Jhansi Regiment · Lakshmi Swaminadhan · Azad Hind Dal · J.R. Bhonsle · Surrender of Japan · Death · Habib Ur Rahman · Renkōji Temple · Shah Nawaz Committee · Khosla Commission · Mukherjee Commission · Bhagwanji · Mission Netaji · Jai Hind · Political views · My enemy's enemy... · Netaji Subhas Open University · The Forgotten Hero · more...




THUS SPAKE AMBEDKAR
Plan to kill Dr. Ambedkar for defending Dalits
“It was now four in the evening. News came in that Gandhi’s health had taken a serious turn, and he was fast losing strength. Gandhi’s son, Devadas Gandhi, with tears in his eyes, described the condition of his father to Dr. Ambedkar and entreated him not to hold over the agreement by pressing for a referendum. At last it was decided to refer this matter to Gandhi. Ambedkar with selected leaders saw Gandhi in the jail at nine o’clock that night. Gandhi approved of the idea of referendum, but said it should take place after five years. Gandhi’s voice had now sunk to a whisper. The Jail Doctors intervened and stopped further conversation. The leaves of the mango tree above refused to move. It was a breathless silence. The visitors had to return. Dr. Ambedkar was not prepared to give up his point. His will-power was on the strain. Letters threatening his life came in showers”.

Here is one such letter:

“Dr. Ambedkar,

If you do not accept to Mahatma Gandhi’s demand within four days, your life will be in danger. If you want to save your life, you should accept Gandhiji’s demand and help ending his fast immediately. This is a warning to you. If you do not give up your vehemence, you will be killed”.

Signed by Haribhai K. Bhat,
A member and worker of BPEE”.

Murderous looks were cast at him in the street, and some of the leaders insanely reviled him behind his back”.

Further, a secret plan to kill Dr. Ambedkar by some youth from touchable classes of Poona was reported by Janata (24.9.32 p.8), thus:

“Dr. Ambedkar’s life in danger!

Secret meeting of Poona students murder threat”

Poona, dt.23-9-32, 8 p.m.

(By special reporter of Janata)

“Two days are over. Negotiations are continuously going on. Various experiments of pressuring Dr. Ambedkar are going on. The students following the Gogate cult which had shot at the Governor, are known to be secretly planning. It is also being said that if Dr. Ambedkar is removed from the scene, things would settle and Gandhiji’s life would be saved. When Dr. Ambedkar as informed of this, he laughed at it. Probably his fearless laugh indicated that he was not afraid of such a death. However, the local Untouchable community is worried about the safety of Dr. Ambedkar and they are keeping an alert. Even if there happens a slightest injury to Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar, there would be a grave situation. Thousands of Untouchable youth would be ready to make any sacrifice for him. All are feeling a concern that there should not be such a violent end to Gandhiji’s oath”.

“The leaders who went to see Mahatmaji at 9.30 p.m. came out after a comparatively short while looking exhausted but cheerful. Dr. Ambedkar was heard to remark “Gandhiji is on my side.”

“The leaders are meeting again in conference at 8 o’ clock on Saturday morning and will see Gandhiji shortly afterwards. Prevalent opinion is that complete agreement is now within reach. And unless a miraculous piece of ill-luck intervenes, Saturday noon must enable Poona to flash out the happy news of a definite settlement.

Differences on questions of major importance have almost been surmounted and have been reduced to an almost theoretical difference on the question of a referendum of the Depressed Classes at a distant future date. It is considered likely that the leaders may agree to a referendum to be taken after 10 years.

Among the points agreed upon are stated to be the following:—

1. A panel of 4 for election to each seat.

2. A single vote.

3. The total number of seats in all Provincial Councils to be reserved for Depressed Classes would be between 150 to 155 as against 71 allowed by the Communal Award.

The Conference, which had met at Pandit Malaviya’s place, early in the morning, after a non-stop sitting of over thirteen hours, came to an end at 9.30 p.m., after which Pandit Malaviya, Sjt. C. Rajagopalachari, Mr. Jayakar, Dr. Sapru, Dr. Ambedkar and others left hurriedly for Yervada jail.

The Conference attracted anxious crowds at Malaviyaji’s place. Even when the leaders rose at 9.30 p.m., no hope of settlement to-night was entertained.

Leaders are racing against time, and lunch after dinner today went side by side with discussions.

While they looked serious and absorbed earlier, boisterous laughter was heard emanating from behind the walls in the evening.

Dr. Babasaheb Ambedkar Writings & Speeches, Vol.17, Part-1 (p.162-164) 2003, Rs. 125. Maharashtra Govt., Manager, Govt. Central Book Depot, Near Charni Road Railway Station, Netaji Subhash Road, Bombay - 400 004.

______________________________________________________________________________

Quota war is nothing but varna yudha
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Bangalore: As this is written, our upper caste boys and girls are furiously demonstrating against the OBC reservations in higher educational institutions. Fine.

But the OBCs, who are going to be benefited by Arjun Singh’s reservation scheme, are no where to be seen. In Delhi and other places it is the Dalits who took to the streets. OBC presence was little.

The upper caste anger is understandable. They are furious because their closely guarded IITs and IIMs — Brahminical bastions — are going to be thrown open to the “dirty” avarnas, meaning the dark-skinned Dravidas.

Gomukh vyaghra: That is why we called the reservation war as varna yudha (caste war). That is what we want and we thank the varna heroes for starting this war.

This war is not new. It is as old as the Budha. The varna people (the three dwija caste groups plus the shudras) had never compromised on their varna purity.

Dr. Ambedkar tested it in 1932 with India’s famous tiger with a cow’s face (gomukh vyaghra), M.K. Gandhi, who loved his people (Hindus) more and ditched the Dalits.

Babasaheb has said all this about the treachery of varna people. But still we go on believing these Hindus who say one thing and do exactly the opposite.

The 1932 “Poona Pact” and what Dr. Ambedkar then warned should have once for all convinced us that Hindus would never, ever compromise on their varna. Yet we did not listen to Babasaheb’s warning and went on believing these children of gomukh vyaghras.

Hindu heart will not melt: See how angry they are at Arjun Singh. But our people are not getting angry at all. OBCs hardly came to the streets. Those who came were mostly Dalits. But even they were simply begging and begging the Hindus. But the Hindus will never, ever throw even a paise to our begging bowl. How long can we go on begging?

Actually it is our people who should have been the angriest and taken to violence against these anti-human merit-mongers. But what is happening is it is the well-fed rulers who are getting angry.

To think that the Hindu heart will melt and yield to our reservations demand is our foolishness.

Stop begging: So what else to do? Stop begging and start seizing. They are the property-holders and stand to lose their properties and also their life. All those who love property and their life are also cowards. We are the propertyless havenots. The Constitution of India is on our side.

These Hindus not even go to vote. It is our people who vote and keep democracy alive. That means they don’t believe even in democracy. None of our MLA or MP need depend upon their votes. They can be simply marginalised and finished with right strategies and tactics.

We have the numbers. We have the physical strength. And we have the constitution. Plus justice and truth. Let the varna yudha begin.

______________________________________________________________________________

Who is ruling India & US ?
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Bangalore: Enough reports and articles have come in DV on who is ruling India and America. Here is yet another from a Columbia University (USA) scholar, Joseph A. Massad, whose book, The Persistence of Palestine Question, was announced in DV May 16, p.28:

In September 1994, during the Clinton administration, the Israeli tabloid Ma’ariv published an expose on “The Jews who run Clinton cabinet”. The newspaper noted the increasing Jewish power in the US Government since the Reagan years. While the newspaper asserted that American Jews had key positions regarding US policy on the Middle East before Clinton under his administration, Jewish power expanded measurably. Aside from Deputy National Security Advisor Samuel Berger and National Security Adviser to the Vice President Leon Perth, “in the National Security Council, 7 out of 11 top staffers are Jews. Clinton had especially placed them in the most sensitive junctions in the US security and foreign administrations.” The article proudly proclaims how American Jews staff top positions in charge of US policy not only on the Middle East but also on Africa, South Asia, Western Europe and Latin America. Indeed, the newspaper article provided its readers with the biographies of many of these so-called warm Jews — “warm” meaning Jews who identify with Jewish interests defined as Israeli interests. Lest we think that this alleged “Jewish power” is limited to the Democratic Party the article explains that “there are also many warm Jews heading for the top positions in the Republican Party”. The article quoted a Washington DC-based rabbi asserting that: “for the first time in American history... we no longer feel that we live in the diaspora. The US no longer has a government of Goyim but an administration in which the Jews are full partners in the decision making at all levels...

America is ruled by its 3% Jews and India is controlled by its 3% Brahmins.

DV May 16, 2006 p.21: “Power of king-makers in America”.

______________________________________________________________________________

The bloody Bush & Blair era ends
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Bangalore: The most destructive period in recent world history dominated by President George Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair is finally coming to an end. The White West currently ruling the world is completely manipulated, directed and dictated by a handful of Jews who control and shape the course of events and manufacture the leaders who obey their dictates. It is the 3% Jews controlling and shaping American parties, finance and media disguised as Necons (Neo-Conservatives) who hoisted the two criminals on the world stage and brought all the misery — ­all the wars and violence — so that their dreamland of Israel lives in peace.

Manufactured opinion poll: After securing the best of results out of their tyrannical rule, milking them dry to their full advantage, the Jews have finally decided to kick them out. Good riddance to bad rubbish. And that is why through their manufactured “opinion poll” in their fully-owned “international media”, they have started putting out all sorts of damaging reports against them.

These are the very Jews who once raised the two criminals sky-high painting them with the best of colours. After fully using them to the benefit of Israel they are now preparing to slaughter and bury them. That is why we are getting “opinion polls” predicting their fall and death. We live in such a make-believe world on which we have no control. This is the position today.

Loyal dog: The Jews are kicking Bush out and getting ready to hoist a new American President who also will be their loyal dog to fulfil their mission of promoting Israel.

Who will be the new President? Most probably it will be John McCain (Republican) or Mrs. Hillary Clinton (Democrat), wife of ex-President Clinton.

DV from the very beginning has been critical of these two tyrants. But the Western media gave us the sweatest and the noblest of accounts of them, praising them sky-high and then goading them to war against Afghanistan, then Iraq and now getting ready for Iran. Why the same media is today cursing them and heaping all sorts of abuses?

This is part of the mind manipulation game in which the Jews in the West and the Brahminical people in India are experts. Both are the same with different names.

Today, the same media says Bush popularity rating has dipped to 30%. But he will stay as President till Jan. 2009. By then his life will be made miserable like that of Clinton to “kill” whom they manufactured Monica Lewinskey, a Jewish girl.

Living death: Blair too was praised and praised and made win three consecutive elections. The Jewish hold on Britain is much older and stronger compared to USA.

Both Bush and Blair names have become mud. Anybody embracing the Jews and India’s Brahminists may get name, fame, wealth, pomp and publicity. But soon they will face living death. Today, both Bush and Blair are facing such a death. They will be made so helpless that they can’t even reveal the truth in public.

Huge big circus: One single example to prove how the whole American politics is one huge big circus tent controlled by the Jewish ring-master. John McCain hated the Jews. Six years ago he denounced America’s famous Jewish agent, Jerry Falwell, America’s most hated figure who once used the worst abuse against Prophet Mohammed and created world-wide furore. This evangelical leader is worth billions.

Last week, McCain went to Falwell and embraced him— proving his total surrender to Jews. Because he knows that without their support he cannot win the presidential election. To win he needs enormous money, publicity buildup and the votes which the Jews alone can bring. This is America which is ruling the world. But the beauty is the American Christians are not even aware of it. The same is the situation in India. Our people are worshipping the very Bhoodevatas who are drinking our blood.

______________________________________________________________________________

Attack on Iran may end US hegemony
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Bangalore: As this is written, a war of hot words is going on between the world’s most hated regime led by President Bush and Iran. But the “Great Satan” is hesitating to attack Iran perhaps on realising the danger in the DV warning. (DV May 1, 2006 p.7: “US attack on Iran will bring multiple benefits to world”).

It also has become very clear that America’s only interest in asking Iran to stop going nuclear is to save its pet zionist state of Israel — and not world peace. So, Iran is perfectly justified in going ahead with its nuclear experiments until it has the bomb.

“Wipe out from world map”: Did not the world’s most dangerous rogue state (Israel) defy everybody and make the bomb? Why the US and its White Western racist allies did not then object? Why they did not punish India and Pakistan breaking the rules? The Western and particularly the American bias is proved.

America is ruled by its 3% Jews who love Israel more than their own country. That is why they are forcing every American Govt. to fight and destroy those countries and people opposed to the zionist state of Israel.

President Ahmadinejad, therefore, is fully justified in demanding Israel be “wiped from the map”.

(1) Israel and its zionist controllers of America may be forcing President Bush to attack Iran. But he is hesitating. We have already welcomed such an attack which will help divide the West and unite the entire Muslim world and the other oppressed people of the world. The Blacks, Dalits and the entire Yellows led by China will support Iran.

(2) Any attack on Iran will sky-rocket oil prices bringing more profits to oil-producing Iran and other Muslim countries and US enemy Venezuela. Unbearable oil prices will force the American people to kick out Bush.

Suicide bombers attack Israel

(3) When such a violent upheaval takes place with America opening yet another front on Iran even as it is getting defeated in Iraq, the revolutionary Hamas ruling Palestine may unleash its hundreds of suicide bombers on the cowardly Jews living inside Israel. Iran itself may join the attack on Israel.

(4) With US dollar already dipping, China may squeeze the neck of American economy.

(5) British Prime Minister Tony Blair sinking inside his own Labour Party for becoming the tail of George Bush is on his way out. Bush is totally isolated and friendless. Nay, hated by the whole world and weakened inside America. Its economy collapsing, there is a chance of a second al Queda attack on America ­— perhaps destroying its sole super power status. (May 11, 2006)

______________________________________________________________________________

Turkey finally heeds DV warning
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Bangalore: Turkey heeds DV’s repeated warnings and loses interest in joining the exclusive “Christian Club” and subject itself to humiliation after humiliation. Finally it decides to lead a dignified life in the company of fellow Muslim countries. If Turkey is kept out of the European Union, the blame goes to its racist Christian members who hate Muslims.

Turkish PM Tayyip Erodogan is naturally disgusted by knocking at the EU doors which are refusing to open. France, Austria openly and many other others silently are opposing EU membership to Turkey which has decided to go with revolutionary Iran and Hamas. Why not?

If Turkey turns away from EU, it is because the racists among White Western Christians do not want to admit Muslim Turkey into their EU.

The West has been repeatedly humiliating Turkey and refusing EU membership. As the once greatest Muslim power on earth in disgust decides to go back to its Islamic roots, West starts advising, warning and even starts troubling. It may be in the interest of West to keep Turkey as its servant without embracing it but is it in the interest of Turkey to remain as the slave of West?

DV June 16, 2005 p.10: “Turkish PM’s shocking behaviour in Israel”.

DV Oct.16, 2004 p.5: “Turkey’s craze to enter EU may subject it to another Spanish experiment”.

DV Oct.1, 2004 p.20: “If religions are dying, why West is fighting Islam & killing Muslims?”

DV Jan.1, 2003 p.10: “Turkey deserves European Union snub”.

DV Dec.16, 2002 p.6: “Final warning to Turkey”.

DV Dec.1, 2002 p. 7: “Turkey finally finds its Islamic roots”.

DV Nov.16, 2002 p.6: “West kicks Muslim Turkey”.

DV March 16, 1996 p.23: “Western mischief in Turkey”.

______________________________________________________________________________

Racial clashes in Bangalore University
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Bangalore: We have often observed that the more educated Hindus are more racist, more arrogant and more caste conscious. That Western education, scientific advancement and liberal democracy will make the Hindu human is a myth.

The Hindu prejudice and discrimination has affected our entire university education. The new UGC Dalit chairman S.K. Thorat, please take note.

It is the highly educated IIT, IIM and MBBSwalas who are now shouting and parading against OBC reservations (our human rights).

Crisis in university education: Bangalore University had a violent clash in the first week of May when an upper caste student in the English classroom said a Kannada word Holeya (an Untouchable caste name in Karnataka) meant bastard. The Brahmin lady teacher did not take objection to the racist translation of the Hindu student.

This angered the Dalit students present and this led to physical clashes in the University. Dalit students said the English Dept. teachers were all anti-Dalit and they even enforced segregation in seating arrangements in class rooms.

It is the English Dept. teachers, all upper castes, who lodged a police complaint against Dalit students and further aggravated the trouble.

By forcing the Dalit students not to learn English after creating a mother tongue mania in them, the upper castes have already monopolised the lucrative technical courses which promise high paid jobs. But Dalit students forced to study in Kannada take to courses in social sciences taught in Kannada. And thereby end up as clerks and some petty jobs, while English- educated Brahmin and other upper caste boys consume the scarce resources allotted to university education and then run away to foreign countries.

Our entire university education is in a terrible crisis where racism is openly practised against Dalits by the teachers themselves. Bangalore University is a good example.




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Home :: March 2008 :: Stories
Film on Tamil leader sheds light on Netaji's secret years
By Papri Sri Raman

Chennai, Feb 22 (IANS) A new film on Tamil leader Pasumpon Muthuramalingam Thevar will throw light on his close association with Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose and his claim that he met the Indian revolutionary in 1956, more than 10 years after Netaji was reportedly killed in a plane crash over Taiwan.

The documentary, to mark the 100th birth anniversary of Thevar, will deal with the time Bose spent in hiding with Thevar's connivance. Titled "Pasumpon Thevar Varalaaru", the documentary narrates the life story of Thevar, who hailed from Pasumpon village of Tamil Nadu's Ramanathapuram district. Thevar saw Netaji as his mentor, the film's director M.P. Abraham Lincoln told IANS.

Bose, a believer in armed struggle against the British rule in India, disappeared in August 1945, two years before the country became free. "Thevar met Netaji for the first time at a conference in Chennai in 1927. From his first meeting till his death, Thevar spoke about Netaji. "Thevar's relatives say, with evidence, that when Bose was in hiding (in 1927) he stayed with Thevar for over a year at his estate in Pulichikulam. The British police had even set up wireless equipment to monitor Netaji's movement in the area. We have included this chapter in Muthuramalingam's life in our documentary," Lincoln said.

"It was Thevar who, with evidence, said he had met Netaji in 1956 - which means many years after he is said to have died in a plane crash. The Indian government did not have any proper replies to the questions raised by Thevar then," Lincoln added. Thevar was an MP when he announced in parliament that he had met Netaji, said Lincoln.

The Central Information Commission has asked the government to make public 29 "top secret" files on Bose under the Right To Information Act. I.B. Karthikeyan's Papillon Communications has made the 75-minute documentary with a budget of Rs.10 million. The film will be released worldwide in March.

"We began the research 18 months ago and shooting started last October. Thevar is a national leader. He worked for the freedom of the country along with Subhas Bose; yet he is known today only as the leader of one caste. The story of his spartan life and his reform is hidden from the outer world," Lincoln said.

"About two years ago, I.B. Karthikeyan was searching the internet for details of Thevar's life. To his dismay, he did not find even a single website which could tell him Thevar's complete life story.

"He immediately started collecting facts, rare photographs and video footage of Thevar. We looked at the history and decided to make a documentary so that the future generation may know something about this great Tamil leader," he said. A rich landowner, Thevar donated most of his land to the poor and spent more than five years in British jails.

"We have not made anyone act out the role of Thevar. Instead, we have used 3D animation to depict him when continuity in narration was needed," the director said. The film was shot in Ramanathapuram, Madurai, Tiruchirapalli, Uraiyur, Pudukottai, Thanjavur, Aaduthurai, Vellore, Kallupatti and Pulichikulam.

An elected member of the Tamil Nadu assembly and the Lok Sabha, his political image was tarnished by a violent anti-Dalit incident. An assembly by-election was held in Muthukulathur in July 1957, when Thevar who had won the seat, vacated it. The seat was won by another member of the Forward Bloc, Thevar's party.

Clashes between the Thevar community, that largely supported the Forward Bloc, and Dalit groups supported by the Congress led to large-scale rioting and burning of Dalit villages in Ramanathapuram during 1957 and several lives were lost. "The Muthukulathur incident has also been filmed without any deviation from the truth. The Muthukulathur incident was nothing but a conspiracy hatched by the rulers of those days to destroy the belief the people had on this impeccable leader.

"Those affected by this incident, the local villagers, have themselves narrated their version of what happened. We have only used these accounts in our story," Lincoln said. Yugabharathi has penned three songs for the film, while Vijay Antony has scored the music and actor Vagai Chandrasekar has lent his voice to the narration.

Asked about the future of such historical films, Lincoln said: "Only commercial films are well received. But many corporate companies are into filmmaking now and with their help we hope to make a full-length feature film on Thevar some day."

http://www.hardnewsmedia.com/2008/02/1998


“Netaji’s ideals still relevant”



Special Correspondent






His vision was of a socialist and secular independent India, says Buddhadeb













— Photo: Arunangsu Roy Chowdhury.

Remembering Netaji: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s nephew Sisir Bose (left) with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at the 112th birthday celebrations of the great patriot in Kolkata on Friday.


KOLKATA: Historians have yet to accord Netaji the position he deserves, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said here on Friday on the occasion of the 112th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose.

“Netaji’s ideals are still relevant today. He has left an indelible mark on the political thought and consciousness of the country and researchers were finding new meanings and inspiration from his writings…His vision was of a socialist and secular independent India,” Mr. Bhattacharjee said, after paying floral tributes to Netaji at his statue. “The world today is being rocked by terrorism; capitalism is pushing it from one crisis to another” the Chief Minister said.

No religion




“Terrorism has no religion,” he said, pointing out that it is unfortunate that some politicians are blaming the Muslims for the Mumbai terror attacks; but the minority community was not responsible for the Malegaon blasts.

Mr. Bhattacharjee said exploitation by big capital and the resulting economic crisis had spread across the world.

Capitalism will remain capitalism, he said, sceptical whether the change in the U.S. presidency will change matters.

The State government will provide assistance to the Netaji Institute for Asian Studies in the city so that more research is done on his life and writings and people get a better understanding of his thoughts and ideals, the Chief Minister said.

Italian Ambassador Alessandro Quaroni, whose father, the late Pietro Quaroni, had given Netaji a false passport in the name of Orlando Mazzotta in Kabul during the great escape of 1941, delivered the Netaji Oration 2009 of the Netaji Research Bureau “The Kabul Connection: Subhas Chandra Bose, Pietro Quaroni and Indo-Afghan-Italian Relations” at the 100-year-old Netaji Bhavan on the occasion.

Based on his father’s private papers and records from the Italian archives Ambassador Quaroni spoke of Netaji’s adventure in Afghanistan.

Under the impression that Netaji might travel from Afghanistan through the Middle East to Europe, the British had ordered his assassination in Turkey. Netaji, however, went to Germany via the Soviet Union under the name of Orlando Mazzotta.

Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi released the new paperback edition of Volume 3 of Netaji’s collected works titled “In Burmese Prisons.” He paid tribute to Netaji who is an “undying inspiration for our country.”
http://www.hindu.com/2009/01/24/stories/2009012454911100.htm

Modi unveils Netaji's status at Haripura
23 Jan 2009, 2235 hrs IST, TNN

SURAT: Statue of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose was unveiled at Haripura in Bardoli by Chief Minister Narendra Modi at a function on Friday to
commemorate the birth anniversary of the great freedom fighter.

At Haripura, Netaji was elected president of Indian National Congress (INC) in 1938 and Haripura convention has a historical significance in the country's freedom movement.

Netaji, who was just 39 then, became the youngest INC president. At the convention, he passed resolutions condemning federal schemes, appointed an India Education Board and set up a Constitution committee.

The statue was erected way back in 1999 with a fund of Rs 11.35 lakh sanctioned by Congress-ruled Surat district panchayat. All these years, the main approach road to the site remained unrepaired and recently when brought to the notice of Modi, local administration was instructed to take up the repair work of the road.

After unveiling the statue, Modi announced an e-gram plan for rural communication digital roadmap in the state.


Associate of Subash Chandra Bose passes away
Published: January 14,2009
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Dehra Dun, Jan 14 Col Preetam Singh, freedom fighter and a close associate of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, passed away at a private hospital near here.

95-year-old Col Singh breathed his last late last night. He was admitted to the hospital last week, his family sources said.


He is survived by his only son Rupinder Singh.


His cremation was held today with state honour at the bank of the river Song near here.


Congress leaders including state In-charge of party affairs R K Dhawan and Pradesh Congress Committee president Yashpal Arya condoled the death of Singh.


Describing him as a revolutionary, Dhawan said Col Singh dedicated his whole life to the service of motherland.


"He valiantly fought against the British rule as a soldier of INA for which he was imprisoned,"he said in a message.


Arya said the country will always remain indebted to Col Singh, who sacrificed everything fighting for its freedom.







Source: PTI


The Mookherji Commission has finally submitted its findings about the mystery shrouding Netaji's death - and has concluded that Netaji did not die in that Taiwan plane crash. Though the one man commission confirms that Netaji is dead as of now (logical - we dont need a commission to tell us that - he would be 109 years old if alive today), it is not sure of how he died.

The Government has categorically rejected the commission's findings, saying "Netaji died in that plane crash". Agreed that the commission was instituted by the previous government. But if this government was in any case going to say that Netaji died in that crash, why did it not wind up the commission immediately after it came to power? Why did it wait for dull two years? Did the government simply want the commission to endorse its version on Netaji's death?

The rejection of the findings comes amid allegations by the commision that government did not produce certain documents which, according to it, could have solved the mystery of Netaji's death once and for all. The bigger question, I believe, is whether the government really is interested in knowing the truth, and the risks involved - in case the truth turns out to be contrary to what we are told.

So this charismatic leader continues to live in his fans' minds (me included). The big ifs remain - if Netaji had not died/disappeared after that crash, would India have been partitioned? if he had returned to post independence India, would the Nehru-Gandhi family have had so much of influence, down to generations, in India?

December 21, 2008




Page: 35/36

Home > 2008 Issues > December 21, 2008


Bhagwanji Se Netaji Tak released in Delhi

Mystery of Netaji’s death must be unveiled—KS Sudarshan
By Pramod Kumar

RSS Sarsanghachalak Shri KS Sudarshan stressed the need to unveil the mystery of death of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose in an air-crash in August 1945. He was releasing a Hindi book, Bhagwanji Se Netaji Tak, in New Delhi on December 5. The book was published by Subhas Chandra Bose Rashtriya Vichar Kendra and was written by Shri Shakti Singh. The book mainly highlights the life of Gumnami Baba of Ayodhya who was said to be Netaji and died a few years back. Besides scores of intellectuals of Delhi, RSS Prant Sanghachalak Shri Ramesh Prakash and former Director General of Uttar Pradesh Police Shri Prakash Singh were also present.

Shri Sudarshan said the suspicion developed in the minds of people about the death of Netaji must be cleared. He alleged that majority of the governments, even after the departure of Britishers from India, tried to ensure that truth about Netaji remains a mystery. He said the government has no evidence to prove that Netaji died in the so-called air-crash. “After Independence Netaji came to India but he was not allowed to come out. The then government feared if Netaji comes out, Pt. Nehru would lose his political career. There are evidences that Gumnami Baba of Ayodhya was Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, but this fact is being suppressed even today,” he added.

Senior BJP leader and former Union HRD Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi said there must be a thorough enquiry about Netaji and the countrymen have all rights to know why the governments continue to hide the information about Netaji. “It was claimed that the government had declared Netaji a war criminal. If this is true why such a order was not quashed after Independence,” he asked further adding that Netaji had not died in an air-crash in 1945 and the country would not have been partitioned if Netaji had been there.

“It is still a mystery why the government is not ready to accept the fact that Netaji did not die in the air-crash when it has no evidence to prove it. Despite being provided so many evidences that Netaji did not die in that air-crash, our governments are not ready to accept it,” he said.

He pointed out that Maulana Azad had refused to include the name of Netaji in the list of died persons to be paid tribute at Congress convention held on September 21, 1945, just after the so-called death of Netaji, because he was not satisfied with the death theory. Mahatma Gandhi and Sardar Patel too were not agreed to the theory. Sardar Patel, while answering a question in Parliament in October 1946, had clearly said that the government could not make any authoritative statement about the death of Netaji. Lord Mountbatten also said in 1978 that he did not have any evidence about the death of Netaji. Even the Intelligence Bureau of the country and the forensic lab refused to prove the death of Netaji. Since people wanted that Netaji should come out after Independence, Pt. Nehru formed a Shahnawaz Committee, which just stamped what Pt Nehru had been saying. But Shri Suresh Bose, another member of the committee, did not support the ‘findings’ and submitted a separate report appealing to the people not to accept the conclusions of the Committee.

When Shahnawaz Committee failed to convince the people about Netaji, the government formed another committee known as Khosla Committee. But that committee too failed to unveil the truth. “Even the Taiwan government does not have any evidence about the so-called air-crash in which Netaji is said to have died. The government is deliberately suppressing the truth,” Dr Joshi said.
http://www.organiser.org/dynamic/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=268&page=35




"This decision is a victory for us," Om Shiva Raj Bhandari, one of the priests protesting against the changes, said. "The new appointments were made illegally and without consulting local priests."

But the reprieve for the Indian priests appeared to be only temporary and the temple trust would soon look for replacements, the Maoist-appointed treasurer of the temple trust said.

"We will begin debates with religious experts to decide the criteria for applications," said Ganesh Prasad Adhikari.

Adhikari said the plan to replace the Indian priests was an attempt to clear up concerns about the handling of cash donations to the temple, which attracts one million pilgrims a year.

"Our idea was not to attack an age-old tradition, we were just trying to make things more transparent," he said.

"In the past the offerings left by devotees were never made public. We have broken this tradition. In the last seven days we have collected an average of 650 dollars per day."

Many devout Nepalese Hindus aim to spend their last days or hours at Pashupatinath and then be swiftly cremated, with their burning funeral pyres pushed in the river.

Subarna Baidya, an ayurvedic (holistic) doctor who works at Pashupatinath checking bodies before cremation, said that the Maoists had ignored the history of the temple, which is a UN world heritage site.

"Those Indians were from a caste that had been conducting rituals for centuries, but they were not even consulted over the decision," said Baidya, 60.

"The Maoists have their own financial interests in the temple."

The proposed changes caused concern in India where LK Advani, the head of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), called the treatment of the Indian priests "shabby and totally unprovoked."

Death mystery of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose

The Death mystery of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose concerns the dispute over the authenticity of the claims of death of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose in a plane crash in Taiwan on August 18, 1945. Bose, a prominent leader of the Indian Independence Movement against the British Raj of India, was believed to be flying to Tokyo when the alleged plane crash occurred. However, his body was never recovered, and theories concerning his possible survival abound. One such claim is that Bose actually died in Siberia, while in Soviet captivity. Harin Shah, an Indian journalist, visited Taipei, and was shown a plane crash site (supposedly of Bose's plane[1]). Subhash Chandra Bose (Bangla: সুভাষ চন্দ্র বসু) (January 23, 1897–August 18, 1945?note) also known as Netaji, was one of the two most prominent leaders of the Indian independence movement against the British Raj (the other was Mahatma Gandhi). ... August 18 is the 230th day of the year (231st in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1945 (MCMVL) was a common year starting on Monday (the link is to a full 1945 calendar). ... The Indian Independence Movement incorporated the efforts by Indians to liberate the region from British, French and Portuguese and form the nation-state of India. ... The British Empire at its zenith in 1919. ... Tokyo , literally Eastern capital) is the seat of the Japanese government and the Imperial Palace, the home of the Japanese Imperial Family, and the de facto[1] capital of Japan. ... Siberian Federal District (dark red) and the broadest definition of Siberia (red) Udachnaya pipe Siberia (Russian: , Sibir; Tatar: ) is a vast region of Russia constituting almost all of Northern Asia. ... Motto: Пролетарии всех стран, соединяйтесь! (Transliterated: Proletarii vsekh stran, soedinyaytes!) (Russian: Workers of the world, unite!) Anthem: The Internationale (1922-1944) Hymn of the Soviet Union (1944-1991) Capital (largest city) Moscow None; Russian de facto Government Federation of Soviet Republics - Last President Mikhail Gorbachev - Last Premier Ivan Silayev Establishment October Revolution - Declared 30... Nickname: the City of Azaleas Government Official Website City of Taipei Mayor Ma Ying-jeou Capital District Xinyi Geographical characteristics Area - Total - % water Ranked 16 of 25 271. ...


In May 1956, a four-man Indian team (known as Shah Nawaz Committee) visited Japan to probe the circumstances of Bose's alleged death in the crash of a military aircraft at Taipei on August 18, 1945. Supposedly, a "veil of secrecy" cloaked the "mysterious" tragedy (including some bizarre tales of murder and gems). But Japanese eyewitnesses (including Army surgeons who said they actually conducted blood transfusions for the dying Indian leader) state that Bose's death from injuries sustained in the air crash is indisputably authenticated. In fact, according to some, Nehru did not wish to unveil the mystery behind Bose's disappearance and led to hushing of some important documents.[2]


An important point to note is that nobody in India had ever asked the government of Taiwan, the country where the air crash allegedly took place, for any assistance in the matter. India has never had any diplomatic relations with the Republic of China, and the Indian Government has consistently used this as an excuse not to do so. However, as far back as 1956, the Government of Formosa, as Taiwan was then called, informed a British investigation, that no air crash had occurred in that country between August and October 1945. Details are available in the book "Netaji - Dead or Alive?" by Indian ex-MP, late Shri Samar Guha. The G D Khosla Commission (1970-1974) too could not reach to any conclusion as it failed to take inputs from Taiwan. Published in 1978, Guha's book is the first-ever and easily the most comprehensive compilation on the Netaji disappearance mystery, which effectively trashes the Taihoku air crash story. On the basis of this book, Mr. Morarji Desai, the then Prime Minister of India, rejected the G D Khosla Commission report in Parliament in 1978.


However, the Inquiry Commission under Justice Mukherjee, which investigated the Bose disappearance mystery in the period 1999-2005, obtained information from the Taiwan Government that no plane carrying Bose had ever crashed in Taipei [3]. The Mukherjee Commission also received a report originating from the US State Department, supporting the claim of the Taiwan Government that no such air crash took place during that time frame.[4] The Mukherjee Commission refers to the one-man board of Mr. ...


It has been reported that a conversation reportedly took place between Josef Stalin and Vyacheslav Molotov in 1946 about whether Bose should remain in the Soviet Union, although he is supposed to have died the year before. There are theories that Bose had kept contact with the Soviets after the defeat of the Axis powers became apparent, and travelled to Manchuria instead of Taiwan (Manchuria was occupied by the Soviets in the final days of the war). Documents to this effect are claimed to be in existence. In effect if reported why Russian forces encountered some members of Indian National Army in Southern Manchukuo between Japanese units of Kwantung Army and other supporters captured (White Russians,East Jews,etc) in area during August 1945;was possibly why between these Indian units stayed Mr. Shubhas Bose also. (Russian, in full: Ио́сиф Виссарио́нович Ста́лин [Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin]; December 18 [O.S. December 6] 1878[1] – March 5, 1953) was the leader of the Soviet Union from the mid-1920s to his death in 1953 and General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (1922-1953... Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov (Russian: , Vjačeslav Mihajlovič Molotov; March 9, 1890 [O.S. February 25] – November 8, 1986), Soviet politician and diplomat, was a leading figure in the Soviet government from the 1920s, when he rose to power as a protégé of Joseph Stalin, to the 1950s, when he... The Indian National Army (I.N.A) or Azad Hind Fauj was the army of the Arzi Hukumat-e-Azad Hind (The Provisional Government of Free India ) which fought along with the Japanese 15th Army during the Japanese Campaign in Burma, and in the Battle of Imphal, during the Second... Manchukuo (1932 to 1945) (Simplified Chinese: 满洲国; Traditional Chinese: 滿洲國; Pinyin: MÇŽnzhōu Guó Kanji: 満州国) was a former country in Manchuria and eastern Inner Mongolia under the leadership of the Emperor Puyi, the last emperor of Qing Dynasty. ... The Kwantung Army or Guandong Army (関東軍 Japanese: Kantōgun) was a unit of the Imperial Japanese Army that originated from a Guandong garrison established in 1906 to defend the Kwantung Leased Territory and the areas adjacent to the South Manchurian Railway. ... The White movement, whose military arm is known as the White Army (Белая Армия) or White Guard (Белая Гвардия, белогвардейцы...


The Mukherjee Commission submitted its report to the Indian Government on November 8, 2005. The report was tabled in Parliament on May 17, 2006. The probe said in its report that Bose did not die in the plane crash and the ashes at Renkoji temple are not his. However, the Indian Government rejected the findings of the Commission.


It has been alleged that Subhash Chandra Bose was abducted by the MI6 or KGB because of his clandestine links with the Axis leaders. Probably he died in custody. It had been feared then that if he returned to India after the Independence, it'd be impossible for the Congress or anybody to stop him from coming to power and even imposing a military rule similar to that of the Nazis (as he had enough exposure to the Nazi leaders). victories of INA against the British troops in Indo-Burmese border had awakened the Indian pride and many compared it to the Battle of Adowa, 1896. The British shared this concern with the Congress top brass and the later were more than willing to have Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose out of their way. Neither the Shah Nawaz committee not the Khosla committee has any credibility to satisfy a rational person. The rejection of the Mukharjee committee report by the Indian government only indicates that the Government of India is not keen on publicizing the truth. Combatants Ethiopia Kingdom of Italy Commanders Ras Makonnen Oreste Baratieri Strength ~100,000 (80,000 with firearms), Unknown number of artillery and machine guns 17,700 (all with firearms), 56 artillery guns Casualties 4,000-6,000 killed, 8,000 wounded[1] 7,000 killed, 1,500 wounded, 3,000... 1896 (MDCCCXCVI) was a leap year starting on Wednesday (see link for calendar). ...


According to Babajan Gouffrav, India's Ambassador in Moscow Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was allowed to see Netaji some where in the Soviet Union on the condition that the Ambassador would not talk and mutely converse in any manner with Netaji. After this strange meeting, Ambassador Radhakrishnan informed Prime Minister Nehru about Netaji's presence in the Soviet Union. This fact came to be known and speculations were rife in New Delhi about the ways and means of securing the release of Netaji from the Soviet custody, but nothing was done at the official level to secure Netaji's release. Thus ended one dark chapter in the history of free India.


According to Babajan Gouffrav, India's Ambassador in Moscow Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan was allowed to see Netaji some where in the Soviet Union on the condition that the Ambassador would not talk and mutely converse in any manner with Netaji. After this strange meeting, Ambassador Radhakrishnan informed Prime Minister Nehru about Netaji's presence in the Soviet Union. This fact came to be known and speculations were rife in New Delhi about the ways and means of securing the release of Netaji from the Soviet custody, but nothing was done at the official level to secure Netaji's release. Thus ended one dark chapter in the history of free India.



On the sidelines of Netaji function, the RJD chief virtually kicked off an election campaign in support of the UPA government. He said that in the past five years the government had proved its mettle on national and international fronts. “It has earned India the tag of a responsible nation.”Showering praise on the performance of the UPA government as well as on his own ministry, he said: “No government in the past had done so much to help the poor and maintain the secular fabric of the country, where everybody is safe, secure and feels proud to be an Indian.

“During the NDA rule, the Indian Railways was called a white elephant and there were proposals to to privatise it and layoff employees. It is needless to say what I have done for the railways. After taking over the ministry, I showed a profit of Rs 10,000 crore in the very first year. I assure you a profit of Rs 100,000 crore by the end of this fiscal before Lok Sabha elections,” he said.

“When other nations are feeling the pinch of slowdown, I assure you I will give jobs to thousands. This is possible due meticulous planning and team work,” he said.

Lalu’s hurricane trip to Gomoh lasted a little more than an hour. He left for Bihar on a special train.

Be it attacks on Mumbai, Delhi or other places, nation stood united keeping its secular image intact and the UPA government provided right direction which is appreciated world wide, he said.

After Mumbai attacks, the Opposition was talking about launch surgical strikes on terrorist training camps in pockets of Pakistan and PoK, but kept our cool and decided to wage a diplomatic war on Pakistan, said Prasad.

“The world is heading for a big change and the election of Obama as the President of the US is also symbol of change. India is also for a big change and its population has now turned into an asset with vast human resources which impressed me when I went to Japan recently. The Indians are respected worldwide for their merit and hardwork,” he said.


"Everything has gone off well," External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee said after Singh's operation by a team of expert doctors flown in from Mumbai ended.

"His condition remained stable during the surgery and utmost care was being taken to prevent any bleeding because of the stitching," Dr Sudhir Vaishnav, cardio-vascular thoracic surgeon with the Asian Heart Institute (AHI), Mumbai, said.

"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was wheeled into the operation theatre in the AIIMS at 5:30 am. The operation finally began at 7:15 am," Dr Vaishnav said.

Meanwhile,Union Home Minister P Chidambaram said on Saturday that India is not facing recession but only a slowdown. Delivering a lecture after launching the Bharatiya Yuva Shakthi Trust in Chennai, he said manufacturing was facing a sharper slowdown. Chidambaram called for more stimulus packages to ensure that aggregate demand remains high. Chidambaram, who was till recently the country's finance minister, said the Indian economy suffered a "monetary shock" following which overseas and non-banking credit had "virtually" dried up in the country.

"We have to take counter-(measures) and sometimes corrective measures to ensure high domestic demand. While the government is taking fiscal measures, the RBI is taking monetary measures," the Home Minister said. Stating that there was some "monetary shock" due to the drying up of overseas as well as non-banking lending, Chidambaram said the public sector banks handled the larger portion of loans.

"We have to increase lending to stimulate domestic demand," he said, adding the government and RBI can and will work together to work out more stimulus packages.
"India is facing a slowdown, with the manufacturing sector facing a sharper slowdown. It is important that we take counter and corrective measures to ensure that demand remains very high. While the government has taken a number of fiscal measures and the RBI monetary measures, perhaps more measures are necessary," he said.
"The entire burden of providing credit has fallen on the banks, and within the banking system a large proportion has fallen on public sector banks," he said.

"Thanks to our policies, our public sector banks are strong, very sound and continue to lend," he said, adding, lending must be increased to stimulate the domestic demand.

"I hope that the Reserve Bank of India and the government can and will work together to ensure there is fiscal stimulus and a supported monetary policy to ensure aggregate demand does not fall too much," he said.

The International Finance Corporation, a World Bank Group, VenturEast, a private equity manager and Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust, an NGO, had joined hands to promote grassroots entrepreneurs in India.

Outlining his government's commitment to boost small and medium enterprises, Chidambaram said various plans had been chalked out to help them in the last 4-5 years.

"A very large proportion of jobs are in this sector, while 40 per cent of India's exports are done by the SMEs. Therefore it is important to nurture this sector" he said.

"Today banks are obliged to lend up to Rs five lakh without any collateral while guarantee amount has been extended from Rs 50 lakh to Rs one crore... some business may fail, but that should not deter us from providing loans and risk capital to small businesses," he said.

Lending institutions like SIDBI should "continue to push lending to SMEs," he said and assured more sops for SMEs from Government.

He described as "understandable and unavoidable," big businesses becoming "winners" when more opportunities opened up, saying they alone can come up with big projects such as mining, oil and infrastructure. "But small business is equally important,' he said.

Lauding Indians for their innovative capabilities, the former Finance Minister said this made them taste success wherever they went. Innovation provided the much needed edge to an economy, he said adding, "Indian young men and women are bubbling with ideas". Chidambaram lauded the Corporate-NGO initiative for recognising entrepreneurs.

Al-Qaida urges attacks in US, Britain to avenge Gaza war
22 Jan 2009, 2143 hrs IST, AFP
DUBAI: A prominent al-Qaida figure, Abu Yahya al-Libi, on Thursday urged Islamist militants to launch attacks in the West, naming the United States
and Britain, to avenge Israel's onslaught on Gaza.

"Sacrifice what you can to deliver to the capitals of the infidel West, the criminal America, and the agent tyrants a taste of what they deliver to our brothers and our oppressed brothers and people in Palestine," Libi said in a videotape posted on the Internet, according a translation by SITE monitoring group.

"Deliver to them the bitter taste of war, tragedies of displacement, and the bitterness of terror," he said.

"It is time for this criminal state, and I mean Britain, to pay the price for its historic crime, which we have not and will not forget," added Libi, blaming Palestinian suffering on Britain's Balfour Declaration of 1917 which promised a homeland for Jewish people.

Libi, who is a Sharia committee official within al-Qaida, said that alleviating the suffering of Palestinians will not come through protest or demonstrations, but through physical action against the enemy, US-based SITE reported.

The videotaped message, titled "Palestine... Now the Fighting is Fierce" is the third message by a member of al-Qaeda leadership within three weeks, calling to avenge the Israel's devastating offensive against the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip.

Al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden on January 14 called in an audiotaped message for Jihad, or holy war, to stop Israel's "aggression" on Gaza, while al-Qaida number-two, Ayman al-Zawhari, explicitly called on January 6 for attacks everywhere on the interests of the "Zionist crusader campaign" on Gaza.

Wall Street mixed under pressure from economic woes

NEW YORK: Investors' ambivalence about earnings reports left Wall Street with a mixed performance on Friday.


Traders pounced on companies showing signs of life and dumped companies whose quarterly results fell short of expectations. Better-than-expected results from Google Inc. helped technology shares while lackluster numbers from General Electric Co. reinforced investors' concerns about the depths of the recession.

Insurer Aflac Inc. helped ease some of Wall Street's concerns about the financial industry after reassuring investors it had more than enough cash to maintain its credit ratings. The company's stock tumbled 37 percent Thursday on reports it did not have adequate capital to cover risky investments. The company issued a statement and an analyst released a research note backing the company's financial position. Aflac rose 6.9 percent.

The results from GE weighed on industrial names and held the Dow Jones industrial average to a loss as broader indexes climbed. The company's results met Wall Street's lowered expectations but investors grew worried that GE will reduce its dividend. They are also nervous the company could lose its coveted ``AAA'' credit rating because of the recession that has crimped lending at GE Capital and hurt its industrial and entertainment businesses. GE fell 11 percent.

Stocks ended a volatile session well off their lows. A sizable comeback Friday was the latest back-and-forth seen throughout a turbulent week. The Dow tumbled 4 percent Tuesday, jumped 3 percent Wednesday and fell again Thursday. Volatility has been more the rule than the exception in recent trading as investors sort through a plethora of wide-ranging earnings reports.

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow industrials fell 45.24, or 0.56 percent, to 8,077.56. The Dow had been down more than 200 points early in the day and briefly moved into positive territory.

Broader stock indicators rose. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 4.45, or 0.54 percent, to 831.95, while the Nasdaq composite index rose 11.80, or 0.81 percent, to 1,477.29.


26/11 attack: 'Narendra Modi trying to help Pakistan’
Ahmedabad Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi came in for a sharp criticism from state leaders in BJP and Opposition Congress for his controversial remarks on evidence gathered in Mumbai terror attack which has given handle to Pakistan to counter India's position.
"The remarks are unwanted, unwarranted and uncalled for," said former Chief Minister and BJP leader Suresh Mehta, who believed that, "One did not expect this kind of statement from a Chief Minister."

"Chief Minister's chair carries certain responsibilities and the first and foremost is the interest of the country," Mehta, a known detractor of Modi, said. "A Chief Minister should not indulge in rhetoric while forgetting discretion," he added.

The Congress described his remarks as ‘loose talk and cheap rhetoric’ and alleged that such statements would help Pakistan, which is being cornered internationally.

The party spokesperson Arjun Modhvadia said that Modi is trying to help Pakistan by making such ‘irresponsible and damaging statements and remarks.’

Modi had recently said that even in India a mere statement is not regarded as evidence under the existing laws. He had wondered that, "What if Pakistan and US both ask India if our law has similar provision which accepts Ajmal Kasab's statement as evidence? What can be more unfortunate?"

Following his statement Pakistan Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani sought to take advantage of Modi's remarks by claiming that he ‘agreed’ with Pakistan's stance on the issue.

"I want to set the record straight. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has said that mere information cannot be evidence. He agreed with my stand that information is not evidence," Gilani said on Friday.

Modi's comments have drawn a flak from all corners with the state Congress demanding a clarification from BJP's national leadership.

"I want the national BJP leadership to clarify its position on the remarks made by Modi and the subsequent remarks made by Pakistan PM," he said.

"Modi's penchant for publicity will cost the country very heavily as he has no control over his language and rhetoric," Modhvadia said, adding that his remarks on Kasab would strengthen the neighbouring country's case.

Leader of Opposition in the Gujarat Assembly Shaktisinh Gohil also criticised Modi, saying, "Please, stop embarrassing India with your anti-India rhetoric aimed at gaining cheap publicity".

Former BJP leader and president of Maha Gujarat Janta Party Gordhan Zadaphia also found Modi's remarks ‘damaging’.
Microsoft to axe 5,000, no job cuts in India
NEW YORK: Starting with 1,400 job cuts, software giant Microsoft will slash 5,000 jobs over the next 18 months.


"Microsoft will eliminate up to 5,000 jobs in R&D, HR, marketing, sales, finance, legal, and IT over the next 18 months, including 1,400 jobs today," the company said in a statement.

The layoff, however, would not be impacting the Indian operations. "It's not going to impact us. No job cuts in India," a Microsoft India spokesperson said in New Delhi.

In light of further deterioration of global economic conditions, extra measures to manage costs are being taken, including the reduction of head-count-related expenses, vendors and contingent staff, facilities, capital expenditures and marketing, the company, which posted a 11 per cent decline in profit for the second quarter, added in the statement.

Microsoft's net profit declined 11 per cent to $4.17bn for the quarter ended December 31, 2008. It had a net profit of $4.71bn in the year-ago period.

The company has posted revenues to the tune of $16.63bn for the second quarter. The entity's revenues stood at $16.37bn in the corresponding period a year ago.


No salary in Satyam for 2 months; SEBI summons Raju
Hyderabad/New Delhi Raju, who has been untraceable since his sent in his resignation on Wednesday, is believed to be at his farmhouse at Kompally on the outskirts of Hyderabad.
While there was no confirmation from police regarding his whereabouts, police officers said they had no orders yet to arrest him.

Sebi has summoned Raju at his corporate office at 4.30 pm, Raju's lawyer, Bharat Kumar, said. While Kumar said ‘I will be there’, he did not specify whether Raju too would be present in his corporate office to meet the Sebi officials.

A while ago, a Sebi team probing a financial fraud in Satyam Computer reached Ramalinga Raju's house in Hyderabad, but returned as the premises was locked.

The SEBI team had first gone to Satyam office in Hyderabad on Thursday in connection with a probe ordered by the market regulator a day before.

The probe follows Satyam's founder and former Chairman Ramalinga Raju disclosing on Wednesday financial irregularities to the tune of about Rs 7,800 crore at the company, after which he resigned.

Satyam withholds salaries for two months; layoffs feared

Satyam Computer announced holding back employees salaries for two months, even as rumours were rife that the company might lay off close to 15,000 workers in the coming days.

The offices of Satyam Computer were rife today with the talks about forthcoming pink-slips at the company, which needs over Rs 500 crore every month just to meet its staff costs and has admitted that its cash position was not encouraging.

Employees said they have received an e-mail saying the company would hold back salaries for two months and asked staffers to bear with it.

However, the company spokesperson declined knowledge of any such e-mail and the issue would be looked into.

Even as the company spokesperson denied any layoff plans as of now, the rumours put the estimated job cuts at close to 15,000 by the end of this month.

Employees at the company said on condition of anonymity that they were hearing about imminent lay-off of people who were sitting on the bench or were close to completing their assigned projects. Besides, those being retained would be asked to take substantial salary cuts, they added.

At the same time, global HT consultancy firm Hay Group's Practice Leader Mark Thompson said that employees would suffer the most from the fraud.

Global HR consultancy firm HayGroup's Practice Leader Mark Thompson said: "Based on past experience as with Enron, Worldcom and the Mirror Group, it is likely to be the employees who will suffer most from the fraud perpetrated by their bosses."

In early 2000, the collapse of energy trader Enron had left thousands of people out of work, another 8,500 had lost their jobs at accounting firm Arthur Andersen; and Tyco eliminated 15,000 employees in February.

Analysts at technology research firm Forrester said employees and clients would soon desert the company amid competitive wooing by the rivals.

The research firm added that it has already been consulted by over half-a-dozen rivals of Satyam on competitive strategies to be adopted to take over the business from the clients of the beleaguered IT firm.

Satyam on Wednesday made a shocking disclosure of fudging of accounts by its founder Ramalinga Raju, who then quit as Chairman, leaving an uncertain future for the company and its 53,000 employees.

Raju, in a statement on Wednesday, said Satyam's profits had been massively inflated over many years but no other board member was aware of the financial irregularities.

The timing of this news is the most unfortunate part about it given the fragile state of the global economy, Hay Group's Thompson said.

The scandal will damage corporate India's reputation, may have implications for the whole BPO and IT Services sector and would certainly give some ‘hotheads in the US a little more ammunition to use against the logic of outsourcing to India,’ Thompson said.

"However, there will not be a long term impact on the employer-employee relationship. Instead, we may get tied up with a series of reviews into corporate governance and a host of new regulations attempting to prevent this kind of thing from happening again," Thompson added.

Another global staffing services firm Manpower said at this point of time ‘employees should assess their current skill sets and explore the opportunities in sectors showing positive hiring intent like energy, telecom and mining.’

Executive search firm Headhunters India's CEO Krish Lakshmikanth has said the company might lay off over 10,000 employees by the next month as it has little cash to pay salaries.

"It is most likely that Satyam will cut 10,000 jobs next month as the company is left with no cash to pay the salaries. The current fiasco is likely to put pressure on salaries, which may reduce by 10 per cent due to the surplus of about 20,000 people in the jobs market," Lakshmikanth said.

Lakshmikanth said till Tuesday evening there were about 7,800 Satyam employees who had posted their resumes on job sites and by Wednesday afternoon, it rose to 14,000.

Satyam's interim CEO Ram Mynampati on Thursday said the company has taken care of the salary for December, but its liquidity position was not encouraging.

When contacted, IT-BPO employees union UNITES said, "We are in touch with the senior and top-level management of Satyam, all kind of rumours are doing the rounds but we still do not have any clarity on the isuue."

"It is unlikely that there will be any layoffs as the new management is trying to portray that all is well in Satyam. Moreover, this is election year, even if the company do not have money government might chip in to rescue the employees," UNITES General Secretary Karthik Shekhar said.

According to the latest Manpoer Employment Outlook Survey hiring intent in IT & ITeS sector has gone down drastically this quarter, compared to the last quarter, but the space is showing a positive hiring intent, with net employment outlook of 23 per cent for the first quarter of 2009.

"In India IT and ITeS sector has been a low-cost and high -quality player and will surely emerge big again after the crisis," Manpower India added.

Meanwhile, UNITES India, a union of ITeS professionals, has warned that over 50,000 IT professionals in India may lose their jobs over the next six months as the situation in the sector is expected to worsen due to the impact of global meltdown on the export-driven industry.

PC praises 'Slumdog', says slums buzzing with biz ideas

Chennai 'Slumdog Millionaire' has a fan in Home Minister P Chidambaram, who said on Saturday that its theme should inspire banks to provide loans to budding entrepreneurs from slums which are humming with business ideas.
Chidamabaram cited the movie portraying the rags to riches story of a boy from Mumbai slum as an example to show that young boys and girls from slums are not lagging behind corporate India.

"Please watch the movie after its release," he said speaking at the launch of the International Financial Corporation-Venture East-Bharatiya Yuva Shakti Trust (an NGO)-sponsored fund to promote grassroots entrepreneurship in India.

The movie has fetched the Golden Globe award for musician A R Rahman and won ten Oscar nominations.

Recalling the success story of girl at a slum in Delhi who had set up a beauty saloon with a government loan, he said "today, most of the residents in that slum are her clients and she earns Rs 5000 a month"

"A slum like Dharavi in Mumbai is humming with business ideas and innovations and we have to reach to such people also," he said and exhorted government and private lending organisations to help such people.

Besides, formal education was "not necessarily" the yardstick to measure success but was "a great boon and help," he said, citing the case of such people.

"Lot of young men and women in slums have the necessary qualities of being innovative and are willing to take risk to carry out a business venture," he said.

Satyam scam: Police arrest two top PwC officials
Hyderabad The Andhra Pradesh police arrested two top officials of auditing firm Price Waterhouse who worked on the Satyam account, in connection with the financial fraud disclosed by the IT firm's founder Ramalinga Raju.
The state CID arrested PwC's Chief Relationship Partner S Gopalakrishnan and Engagement Leader Srinivas Taluri. The police had earlier questioned Gopalakrishnan.

Raju, his brother Rama Raju and Satyam's former CFO Vadlamani Srinivas are already in judicial custody awaiting charges to be filed in connection with the Rs 7,800 crore accounting fraud in the IT company.

PwC had said that its auditing of Satyam accounts may not be reliable given Raju's disclosure of falsifying profits.

Satyam’s HR starts employee verification
Hyderabad The human resources department of Satyam Computer Services has started verification to ascertain the company's headcount, following the Andhra Pradesh CID's claim that there were 13,000 ghost employees on the rolls of the IT firm.
"Our HR department is now verifying the employee details," the company's spokesperson said on Saturday.

"As of now, we believe there are 53,000 employees, which is subject to verification and auditing," a Satyam spokesperson said on Friday , adding "the board has confirmed that prima facie there appears to be no basis to doubt the same."

The Andhra Pradesh CID had told the local court that Satyam's founder B Ramalinga Raju had admitted that the number of employees was inflated by over 12,000, by which he (Raju) drew over Rs 20 crore a month towards staff cost.

Ramalinga Raju's lawyer Bharat Kumar said the police claim is wrong.

According to a Satyam official, the line managers have been asked to provide details of the employees directly reporting to them.

The HR department's verification is based on active e-mail IDs and access card data captured across the offices of Satyam.

The company was supposed to have had 53,000 employees and operated in 66 countries with a customer base of 185 Fortune 500 companies.
Sack foreigners first, senator asks Microsoft
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Reuters
Posted: Jan 24, 2009 at 1028 hrs IST

Washington A US senator has asked Microsoft Corp about its plans to slash up to 5,000 jobs, urging the world's biggest software company to preserve the jobs of Americans ahead of foreigners working on visas.

"I am concerned that Microsoft will be retaining foreign guest workers rather than similarly qualified American employees when it implements its layoff plan," Sen Charles Grassley, an Iowa Republican, said in a Jan. 22 letter.

Microsoft shocked investors on Thursday when it released quarterly results that missed Wall Street expectations, announced up to 5,000 layoffs and said it would no longer give forecasts for the rest of the fiscal year.

The company has been a champion of expanding the H-1B visa program, a temporary visa program that lets American companies and universities hire foreign workers in a category considered by the government to be a "specialty occupation".

Microsoft said late Friday that some of the people who lose their jobs would likely be non-Americans.

"We care about all our employees, so we are providing services and support to try to help every affected worker, whether they are US workers or foreign nationals working in this country on a visa," a Microsoft spokesperson said in an e-mail statement.

Microsoft employs thousands of workers through the visa program, according to Grassley, the top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.

The letter asked Microsoft Chief Executive Steve Ballmer to provide a breakdown of the jobs to be eliminated, and how many of those are individuals with H-1B visas and how many are Americans. Grassley also wants to know what the breakdown will be when the layoffs are complete.

"Microsoft has a moral obligation to protect these American workers by putting them first during these difficult economic times," Grassley said in the letter, copies of which were provided by his office on Friday.


Lalu sends feelers to Soren for talks
SUDHIR KUMAR MISHRA & SHASHANK SHEKHAR

Ranchi/Gomoh, Jan. 23: Railway minister and RJD supremo Lalu Prasad today sent an emissary to JMM chief Shibu Soren for “decisive” talks, but not before admitting that no one was in a position to form an alternative government in the state.

“Let us see what happens. Something will crop up. For now, the President’s rule has been imposed,” Lalu told The Telegraph.

Soren, in turn, rushed to his Bokaro residence to “receive” Lalu’s words from senior RJD leader Girinath Singh. He was at his native village Nemra in Ramgarh, about 60km from Bokaro, when he learnt that Singh was coming with Lalu’s message.

Lalu himself, however, did not pay a visit to Soren at Nemra to condole the death of the latter’s younger brother, though such a possibility was on the cards.

The railway minister returned after attending scheduled programmes at Koderma, Gomoh and Hazaribagh Road Railway stations. During his brief halt at Koderma railway station, Lalu made it clear that going to Soren’s place was not on his agenda.

But insiders maintained that Lalu “abandoned” his idea of paying a visit to Soren after being conveyed that the JMM chief was determined to ensure that his successor ought to be his “nominee”.

Soren also reportedly “turned away” the feelers, arguing that the RJD and Congress had no right to dictate terms in Jharkhand politics.

“What will the RJD and Congress gain if they now help Soren “install” a dummy chief minister? He is perhaps forgetting that he has always been the biggest beneficiary in the UPA politics. And now, he is going to be the biggest loser if he does not mend his ways,” a senior RJD leader said.

State UPA steering committee chief Madhu Koda said even if Soren wanted to have a successor of his choice, he should discuss the same with other alliance partners.
http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090124/jsp/jharkhand/story_10434762.jsp
PLAY THE GOOD BUTCHER
- India’s economic future is hostage to crooks and cheats
Sunanda K. Datta-Ray


True lies
It’s almost as if Barack Obama had India in mind when he said in his inaugural address that “greed and irresponsibility on the part of some” had weakened the economy. As the Satyam saga unfolds, one cannot but wonder if the “some” does not embrace our entire business class. It’s a disturbing thought because the market, whose “power to generate wealth and expand freedom is unmatched”, as Obama also said, makes businessmen the engine of growth. Is India’s economic future hostage then to crooks and cheats?

We are told that one dishonest swallow doesn’t make for a dishonest summer. But Britain’s Noble Group, an independent investment bank, warns of “more Satyams in the pipeline thanks to enfeebled regulation, weak accounting discipline, and aggressive promoter behaviour” among India’s 500 top companies. Looking back over a past studded with the likes of Dharma Teja and Harshad Mehta, it’s impossible not to recall Kautilya’s dictum about tasting the sweetness of honey. Can our entrepreneurs resist the temptation as their companies open up to the world and even greater fortunes become accessible?

Indians are not necessarily more dishonest than others. But apart from the loopholes Noble mentioned, our corrective machinery is hamstrung. It does not immediately and automatically swing into action when criminal activity is suspected, investigate without fear and speedily get to the bottom of things. The Santhanam Commission’s most important recommendations on checking corruption were ignored. India’s equivalent of Indonesia’s, “Semuanya bisa diatur (Everything can be arranged)”, is “Everything depends on who you know”. With the judges of the Supreme Court — the highest tribune in the land — coy about disclosing their assets, thieves and swindlers are convinced they need not fear the law.

But if businessmen are not disciplined, what the prime minister calls a “blot on our corporate image” will blot out the image itself. No one doubts Manmohan Singh’s determination “to unravel the full nature of the (Satyam) fraud and punish those involved”. But he is too gentlemanly to be the “good butcher” Gladstone regarded as a prime minister’s “first essential”. We have also learnt well from the British who joke that royal commissions are appointed to hush up things.

Our inquiries are either so much eyewash or leave no lasting impact. I know of a company that government auditors visited every day, ostensibly to scrutinize its books. It was common knowledge that its shareholding and trusts were a fiddle, that the CEO, who made a point of speaking loud and long about integrity in public life, was surreptitiously selling off valuable real estate, and that the proceeds were spirited away abroad. When the government auditors claimed to have found nothing, it meant either they had been squared or the CEO’s creative accounting was cleverer than B. Ramalinga Raju’s.

The Das Commission did not end the politician-businessman nexus, as we know from the patronage N. Chandrababu Naidu and Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy extended to Raju. No doubt Sunil Mittal, the Ambanis and even Ratan Tata expect similar benefits from Narendra Modi. Media ethics did not improve as a result of the Vivian Bose Commission on the Dalmia-Jain group. Those who pressured the Life Insurance Corporation to invest massively in Haridas Mundhra’s companies must have known he was, as the Chagla Commission reported, “not an industrialist at all, but an adventurer”, whose “passion” was to “swallow as many firms as possible” and whose methods were “dubious, to say the least”. The Jaganmohan Reddy Commission compounded the Nagarwala mystery (after the investigating officer died in a car crash and the former intelligence agent accused of “mimicking” Indira Gandhi’s voice died in prison) with its intriguing admission of “several lacunae” that could not be answered without leaving “the safe haven of facts which required to be established by evidence and entering the realm of conjectures and speculation”.

Scams are rooted in patronage, the system of planning and permits, and India’s mix of poverty, sanctimoniousness (in a variant of the old affectation of Gandhian plutocrats, Raju is supposedly “monk-like” and “a visionary”) and money-mindedness. Bogus employees, benami assets and fictitious bills are the staple of Indian commerce. Some smaller firms may be less corrupt than the giants, some business communities more prone to malpractices than others. But dishonesty is so pervasive that a body or two would surely swing from every lamp post in the country if Nehru’s legendary threat were carried out. High taxes and the licence-permit-raj can no longer be blamed. It’s sheer greed.

Calcutta Electric Supply Corporation gets away with diddling lakhs of consumers every month out of the rupee or two rebate that should be deducted from the gross bill. Wipro’s denial of any wrongdoing would have been more convincing if it had disclosed earlier that it had been banned since 2007 from dealing with the World Bank for offering shares to World Bank employees when it floated stock in the United States of America. Megasoft Consultants was also barred after participating in a joint venture with World Bank employees while conducting business with the institution.

One reason why DCM and Escorts (controlled, like Satyam, through a family’s tiny share of equity) went to such lengths to thwart Swraj Paul was that an outsider would upset the cozy arrangement whereby public companies are treated like personal property, with houses, cars, jewellery, weddings, receptions and all other luxuries charged to shareholders. The law has caught up at last with the head of Nagarjuna Finance but that does not mean that more than 85,000 depositors will recover their savings of Rs 100 crore. Meanwhile, Duncan Industries’ depositors (including air force servicemen’s associations) are running from pillar to post trying to make sense of an unintelligible repayment scheme that fobs them off with words while Duncans pockets their money and goes scot free! The captains of industry who swindle people of their savings are the pillars of society. They support every political party and lord it over august organizations like the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry and Confederation of Indian Industry.

If Satyam’s accounts were as impeccable as PricewaterhouseCoopers, the auditors, claim, what were the “material accounting irregularities'” that DSP Merrill Lynch, the global investment banker, cited to terminate its 10-days-old agreement to advise on strategic options? For that matter, was Merrill Lynch’s appointment connected to its sale, less than a week earlier, of 3,900,000 Satyam shares? Other substantial offloading by senior Satyam executives suggests insider trading. The sellers may have been warned that the game was up. Or smelt a rat.

The prospect of the investigation extending to Mauritius and elsewhere because Satyam allegedly sent funds abroad raises the further spectre of investigators enjoying foreign holidays at public expense. Scepticism is unavoidable because of the all-round decline in standards. Corruption is no longer an election issue, except to smear opponents. Members of parliament take up scandals only when a rival party is involved. Businessmen give a stake in their enterprises to relatives of politicians. Nor are there many judges like M.C. Chagla, or jurists like M.C. Setalvad, the attorney-general who assisted him in the Mundhra affair. The media focus on drama and entertainment. The small voice of conscience of journals like C.R. Rajagopalachari’s Swarajya, hammering away at untruth, demanding implementation of the Santhanam proposals and seeking to cleanse public life, is no longer heard.

There is talk of new laws, rules and investigating agencies. Honest intention matters far more. The guilty can be brought to book if existing agencies enforce and execute the laws that are already available. It’s no longer only the Congress in whose coffin corruption “will prove a nail”, as Rajendra Prasad warned. The coffin is of a country that should be poised for global take-off. The market economy is inevitable but as Obama also warned, “without a watchful eye, the market can spin out of control”. India has enough institutional controls to prove Kautilya wrong and prevent such a catastrophe.

sunandadr@yahoo.co.in

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090124/jsp/opinion/story_10431554.jsp



'Netaji all-time favourite leader'
24 Jan 2009, 0308 hrs IST, Aditya Dev, TNNMOHALI: It is now an established fact that National Security Guards (NSG) commandos are the biggest saviour of the country during a crisis
situation, but you may be in for a surprise as a person, believed to have been died over 50 years back, still holds relevance and could have changed the fate of the country, if alive.

We are talking about none other than great freedom struggler and founder of Azad Hind Fauj ' Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose. At a time when people talk about giving the reins of nation to young leadership, a survey conducted by TOI in Chandigarh-Mohali and Panchkula has established that people still repose their faith in Netaji, who could have steered the country to new heights, had he got the chance.

On January 23, as the country observed his 112th birth anniversary, TOI conducted a sample survey among 200 people in tri-city that included students, housewives, employees, senior citizens and senior bureaucrats. Respondents were given five names including NSG commandos, former president APJ Abdul Kalam, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Rahul Gandhi and US president Barack Obama and to give their preference as to who could have the calibre to turn the country's fate around.

It may be heartening to find that people reposed their faith in Netaji and put NSG commandos, who were recently voted top, on second slot. Highest 60 people voted for Netaji, followed by 56 for NSG commandos, Rahul Gandhi was placed on third slot with 36 votes followed by APJ Abdul Kalam (28) and Barack Obama with 20 votes. Many believed that Netaji, who infused a sense of nationalism among people, played a key role in India's independence.

Terming Bose as one of the greatest revolutionary leaders, VP Saini said, 'Netaji was a far-sighted leader and sowed the concept of independent India. He achieved absolute communal harmony in INA through the common salutation of Jai Hind.'

'There are two important lessons today's youth should learn from Netaji. Firstly, serving the country should be the first duty, rather than just running after lucrative jobs. Secondly, the influence of western countries should not shroud our thinking process,' said Jagmohan Singh, nephew of revolutionary Bhagat Singh.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Chandigarh/Netaji_all-time_favourite_leader/articleshow/4024024.cms

Obama books vanish from Kolkata bookstores
24 Jan 2009, 0345 hrs IST, Sumati Yengkhom, TNN

KOLKATA: Books by Barack Obama are fast disappearing from the shelves. In fact, the two most popular titles by the 44th US president Audacity of
Hope and Dreams From My Father are out of stock in most bookstores. Distributors have placed huge orders for these two books, expecting a rush for them during the Kolkata Book Fair.

"The demand grew immediately after Obama defeated Hillary Clinton for the Democratic Party nomination. It surged after he won the elections and now, when he has taken oath of office, these two titles are out of stock with all Crossword books stores across the city. In fact, we sold the last book two weeks ago. We expect to get the fresh supplies before the book fair," said Sidhharath Pansari.

In fact, the sale of these two books picked up such speed that they were among the top five bestsellers along with the likes of The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga, Imagining India by Nandan Nilekani and Slum Dog Millionaire by Vikas Swarup.

"For a book that that has a specific category of readers, selling two to three copies per day is a good number. In fact, I have kept a few copies packed for the Kolkata Book Fair. In case fresh supply does not arrive on time," said Ashok Burman of Family Book Shop.

Obama titles are expected to sell like hot cakes during the 12-day-book fair, which kicks off on January 28. "We were selling around 20 copies of each of the books every week till the stock dried up a fortnight ago. We are expecting the supply to resume before the book fair starts," said Prem Prakash of Modern Book Depot.

Distributors like IBD, Bombay, Limited (IBDBL) are also pulling up their socks to meet the increasing demand. The demand for the books was just average six months ago, but after Obama won the election, its demand grew almost 20 times, said an official. For example, IBDBL used to supply around 800 copies of Dreams From My Father in a month. It is expecting to double the sale over the next two months.

"Kolkata is among the top three cities, along with Mumbai and Delhi, where the demand for books by Obama is the highest. The shipments for these two titles will reach the city before the book fair. People have started asking about the other books written by him," said Rajesh Khanna, IBDBL eastern region general manager.

"Since the two titles are constantly running out of stock, we placed orders for them much in advance for the upcoming book fair. We are yet to receive the books though," said Gautam Jatiya CEO Star Mark.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Obama_books_vanish_from_Kolkata_bookstores/articleshow/4024379.cms

Pollution turns Kolkata sky brown
24 Jan 2009, 0347 hrs IST, Prithvijit Mitra, TNN
KOLKATA: If the sky looks gloomy and brown to you rather than a vibrant blue, there is nothing wrong with your eyes. It indeed has changed colour.
Blame it on the double whammy of rising pollution levels and changing weather patterns, but the Kolkata sky is slowly taking on a ominous shade. The brown hue could get darker in the next few years.

A research by US-based Scripps Institute of Oceanography reveals that the city has been affected by the "Asian Brown Cloud" a layer of moisture, particulate matter and pollutants that hangs heavy above the city sky.

First noticed in NASA's satellite pictures in 1993, the cloud now stretches across Kolkata, parts of Bangladesh, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. "It has formed in the upper layers of the atmosphere and is evident in Kolkata. With rising pollution, the cloud is obviously getting thicker. It is more evident in winter and disappears in monsoon. But with wind flowing in from the north-east and pollutants getting trapped in winter, the cloud returns. This year has been no different," said Gautam Sen of Jadavpur University who is associated with the study.

Pollution-laden winds flowing in from China and Bangladesh are also responsible. "Local pollution is obviously adding to it. If we cut down our pollution, the cloud will thin out," said Sen, adding that another study to analyze the cloud has already started.

Brown cloud, experts warn, could block sunlight and lead to health hazards. Some environmentalists believe vehicular pollution has a direct role to play in this.

As auto emission levels rise, more and more emitted particles are getting trapped in the lower levels of the atmosphere. When temperatures fall in winter, the particles can't disperse into the upper layers of the atmosphere. "This is called temperature inversion effect. The air can't move up easily, emitted particles cloud the layer and vertical mixing of air gets reduced. When we look through the polluted layer, the sky obviously looks a dirty brown instead of blue," said Deepak Chakraborti, chief scientist, West Bengal Pollution Control Board (WBPCB).

Government agencies say that even though the inversion effect is at work in Kolkata, there is not enough evidence to show that the colour of the sky has changed. "Pollution has altered the natural profile of the lower atmospheric levels. Concentration of particles has gone up alarmingly but we have no evidence yet to conclude that the sky is looking different. We haven't done any research on this," said Shyamal Adhikari, chief environmental engineer of WBPCB.

The Central Pollution Control Board, which has done a similar study in Delhi, said meteorological conditions and rising pollution in Kolkata warranted a research. "Harmful pollutants like sulphur dioxide, chlorine, nitrogen dioxide and even suspended particulate matter could block vertical transmission of air. When this happens, brown cloud is likely to be formed," said S S Bala, regional in-charge of CPCB.

Some experts pointed out that the brown cloud could lead to toxic rain. The green rain in Haldia last year might have resulted from the coloured cloud above Kolkata, they suspect. "Any precipitation from the brown cloud is bound to be toxic. So, we need to act immediately before Kolkata gets lashed by toxic rain," said Abhijit Chakrabarti, senior scientist at the Saha Institute of Nuclear Physics.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Kolkata_/Pollution_turns_Kolkata_sky_brown/articleshow/4024381.cms

Green fuel a must, says Nobel laureate
24 Jan 2009, 0344 hrs IST, TNN

KOLKATA: Power-driven cars and cleaner fuel like LPG are the only way to curb vehicular pollution in Kolkata, feels Nobel laureate Wolfgang Nobel Laureate Wolfgang Ketterle speaks during the 19th Satyendra Nath Bose memorial lecture at Ramkrishna Mission Institute in Kolkata. (PTI Photo)

More Pictures
Ketterle. The time has come for emerging nations like India to start experimenting with alternative fuel for the sake of environment and health, he said in Kolkata on Friday.

Delivering the S N Bose memorial lecture, the German physicist said: "Cleaner fuel is a concern all over the world. Experiments are being done with electric cars and alternatives like LPG. I am not aware of the situation in Kolkata but if steps are being taken to ban polluting engines, then it is a right move. Auto emission is hazardous and has to be controlled," said Ketterle.

The physicist based in MIT, USA since 1990 has done research on clean and efficient combustion at the University of Heidelberg in Germany.

Ketterle hailed the contribution of Indian scientists, describing Bose as the father of the path-breaking condensation theory. "Bose and Einstein had triggered low temperature experiments that have led to the discovery of new matter.I owe my work and my Nobel to them," said Ketterle, who won the coveted award in 2001 for demonstrating the existence of Bose-Einstein condensation in cold atoms. "It is a wonderfully written theory. Even undergraduate students can follow it. Yet it has led to inventions that have changed physics for ever," Ketterle said.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Cities/Kolkata_/Green_fuel_a_must_says_Nobel_laureate/articleshow/4024377.cms

Ramesh Sippy expresses regret over CC2C row in Nepal
23 Jan 2009, 2114 hrs IST, TNN

KATHMANDU: As Nepal’s Maoist government banned Chandni Chowk to China at home and asked its foreign ministry to ask the US, Canada and other foreign
countries where the controversial film is being screened to halt the shows, Ramesh Sippy, the main producer of the Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone-starrer has expressed his regret, saying the film did not intend to hurt anyone’s sentiments.

Almost three days after demonstrations by enraged students erupted on the streets of Kathmandu and in Nepalgunj town in western Nepal, the makers of Bollywood’s first kungfu comedy finally took notice of the uproar in the neighbouring country and reacted.
However, Sippy’s statement of regret is unlikely to put the fire out in Nepal. The maker of the film said to have had a budget of Rs 80 crore did not have the resources to reach out to the Nepali media. A brief message was faxed only to the Indian Embassy in Kathmandu.

In the statement, Sippy said that he and the entire team of Chandni Chowk to China expressed regret over the misunderstanding about the birthplace of the Buddha. It was not done deliberately to hurt anyone’s sentiments, the statement said.

The fat was set on fire in the very opening scene in which the hero was described as a man hailing from the birth place of the Buddha, implying that the founder of Buddhism was born in India. The Buddha was born in Lumbini in Nepal and the town is revered by Buddhists all over the world.

When Chandni Chowk to China was previewed by Nepal’s Censor Board, the censors objected to the wrong statement and the distributors deleted it. Though Nepal’s theatres screened the film without the wrong statement, word reached Nepal that the versions showed in India and elsewhere were projecting India as the birth place of the Buddha. It led to growing protests by students, forcing the government to ban the film in Nepal.

“However, Nepal’s Censor Board is not active in the US, Canada and other countries where the film is being shown,” Nepal’s information and communications minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who is also the spokesman of the Maoist government, said. “The cabinet has therefore asked foreign minister Upendra Yadav to interact with foreign governments and issue advertisements abroad to point out the mistake.”

Nepal’s government called the misrepresentation in the film an attack on Nepal’s nationalism.

The foreign minister has also been asked to contact India’s external affairs ministry and lobby for the erasing of the statement from the original version of the film.

Nepal Film Journalists’ Association is asking for an apology from director Nikhil Advani, producers Ramesh Sippy and Warner Brothers as well as screenwriters Rajat Arora and Shridhar Raghavan.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Ramesh_Sippy_expresses_regret_over_Buddha_row/articleshow/4023480.cms



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