''Netaji's death a deception rooted to Nehruvian past" : NDA

New Delhi, July 19 (UNI) Opposition NDA today demanded that the UPA Government come out with a 'logical explanation' as to why it rejected Justice Mukherjee Commission report which had rejected the theory that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose had died in any plane crash or that his ashes were lying in Renkoji temple in Taipei.

Senior NDA leaders George Fernandes and Dr Murli Manohar Joshi at a joint press conference said that the Commission had arrived at this conclusion based on 'robust circumstantial evidence' which confirmed suspicion harboured by the people of India that he did not die in any plane crash.

They said the report was summarily rejected by the UPA government without any explanation only to protect former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru who had told the nation Netaji had died in a plane crash whereas another former Prime Minister Morarji Desai had told the Lok Sabha that it was difficult for the government to accept the earlier Commission conclusions that he died in a plane crash as it was not based on decisive evidence.

The leaders said that a secret plan was contrived by the Japanese military and Netaji's aides to find a safe passage from the allied (US-British) forces but could not extricate themselves from the latent loopholes that have now come to light. The purpose of Netaji's flight was to go to Soviet Union and continue independence movement with its help, they said.

They said that Mahatma Gandhi's Secretary Khurshed Naroji in his letter dated July 1946 had stated that Indian Army was sympathetic to INA and if Netaji were to come up with the help of Russia neither Gandhiji nor the Congress would be able to reason with the country.

Mr Fernandes alleged that Mr Nehru was the lone beneficiary of the suppression of the news about Netaji and therefore the theory - death in the plane crash.

There was an official communication existing in the Prime Minister's Secretariat stating that a small amount of Rs 200 along with the ashes and other remains of Netaji were kept in the External Affairs Ministry. If the ashes were already with the government than the ashes lying in Renkoji temple, Taipei was obviously that of Mr Ichiro Okura, a Japanese soldier who died on August 19 and his cremation on the basis of a permit issued on the previous day was passed off as that of Netaji, they said quoting Mukherjee Commission report.

They said to summarily reject a 600 plus page report of a former judge of the Supreme Court without an explanation was nothing but 'arbitrary' and it was not difficult to understand the reasons for the rejection. The 'deception' rooted to the Nehruvian past continues even today and Defence Minister Pranab Kumar Mukherjee is a strong votary of Netaji's death, the two leaders said. There was also a 'wilful destruction' of top secret PMO file in the Indira Gandhi regime which should have been made available to Justice Khosla Commission inquiring into the circumstances leading to the 'death of Subhas Chandra Bose'.

The Government was disinterested in bringing real facts about Netaji's disappearance. "National will not allow the truth to be suppressed", they said.

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