On the occasion of 76th Independence Day, Prof. Anita Bose Pfaff, daughter of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose demanded the government to bring Netaji’s remains to India. Bose, leader of the Indian National Army, died in a plane crash in Taiwan on August 18, 1945.
“Modern technology now offers the means for sophisticated DNA testing, provided DNA can be extracted from the remains. To those who still doubt that Netaji died on 18th August 1945, it offers a chance to obtain scientific proof that the remains kept at Renkoji Temple in Tokyo are his,” Pfaff said in a statement, referring to the long-standing theory that Netaji died in a plane crash in Formosa in the final weeks of World War 2.
Several of Netaji’s Indian relatives, however, have contended that he survived the crash of a Japanese military aircraft at Formosa, now called Taiwan, on August 18, 1945, and that the government should continue a search to establish where he travelled from Taiwan.
“The priest of Renkoji Temple and the Japanese government agreed to such a test, as the documents in the annexures of the last governmental Indian investigation into Netaji’s death (the Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry) show,” she said.
“So let us finally prepare to bring him home! Nothing in his life was more important to Netaji than his country’s independence. There was nothing that he longed for more than living in an India, free of foreign rule! Since he did not live to experience the joy of freedom, it is time that at least his remains can return to Indian soil,” she added.
Pfaff, an economist who was born in Vienna to Bose and Emilie Schenkl in 1942, said that “as Netaji’s only child I feel obliged to ensure that his dearest wish, to return to his country in freedom, will, at last, be fulfilled in this form and that the appropriate ceremonies to honour him will be performed.”
Read More: On Eve of 75th Independence Anniversary, Peace Pilgrims From Pune Bring Message Of Love To Pakistan
