Kolkata: Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's daughter Anita Bose Pfaff, in a statement issued from her home in Germany on the eve of her father's 129th birth anniversary on Friday, said Bose died in a plane crash in Taipei in Aug 1945 and called for his "remains" to be brought back to India, ending an "exile which he never wanted".
A section of the Bose family did challenge the plane crash theory, but later accepted it on the grounds that there was no other satisfactory explanation behind Netaji's "disappearance". Though many in the Bose family disputed the plane crash, they now accepted it following the release of the ‘classified Netaji files' in 2016, said Netaji's grandnephew Chandra Bose. "It is now amply clear he died in the crash as all the files point to it. There have so far been 11 inquiries, 10 of which went with the plane crash. There is no reason to dispute it, and Anita Bose Pfaff's statement reinforces that view. Even though she never opposed the plane crash theory, Bose Pfaff probably never said it so clearly before," said Chandra Bose.
Tracing events that led to Bose's flight from Singapore to Tokyo in the wake of Japan's fall in World War II, Bose Pfaff wrote: "Netaji set out from Singapore on Aug 16 to fly to Tokyo. After a stop-over in Taipei on Aug 18, 1945, his plane lost an engine immediately after take-off and crashed. He was one of the passengers who survived with severe burns, but he died of his injuries that same day.
"Netaji was cremated in Taipei, and his remains were taken to Tokyo. The head priest of the Renkoji Temple acceded to the request of members of the Indian community in Tokyo to keep Netaji's remains safe ‘for a few months'. More than 80 years have passed since; yet Netaji's remains still rest in Renkoji Temple. I am indebted to Japan, and specifically to three generations of head priests of Renkoji Temple, who took care to preserve and honour Netaji's remains."
Bose Pfaff went on to add that, once asked what he feared and abhorred most, Netaji reportedly answered, "to be in exile". "In the 1930s, he returned to India from exile in Europe, though he was warned that he would be imprisoned immediately upon arrival. He only fled from India in 1941 to avoid renewed imprisonment. He was sadly never to return alive to his beloved motherland," she added.
Bose concluded her statement, saying: "As Netaji's daughter, I invite the Indians of today who still revere him, to support his posthumous return from exile; to support the transfer of his mortal remains to India for a final and fitting disposal. Jai Hind."