R. K. Sinha
Panddit Jawahar Lal Nehru always felt insecure from Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, though Netaji always gave due respect to and considered Nehru in reverence. But Nehru, even after Independence carried misgivings about Netaji fearing that he might resurface in India and threaten his position. With this suspicison in mind Nehru as Prime Minister unleased detectives and intelligence agency to keep a tab on family of Netaji. It was at Nehru behest that entire family of Netaji in Calcutta was kept under surveillance. Till 1968, four years after Nehru died in 1964, Netaji’s family was under watch.
In 1957, Amiya Nath Bose, nephew of Netaji went to Japan. Nehru then called foreign secretary Subimal Dutta and asked him to direct India’s ambassador in Tokyo to keep a watch on Amiya Bose and track his movement in Japan. Not only that Nehru also wanted to know if Amiya Bose visited places including Indian Embassy in Tokyo where Netaji’s ashes were kept. Such was the fear in Nehru.
This was disclosed in the book ‘India’s Biggest Cover Up’ written by Anuj Dhar. Why Nehru was so keen to track the movement of Amiya Bose. It was because he thought by keeping a track on Bose he could know if Netaji was still alive and if so where he was.
Netaji in Anand Bhavan
Netaji, in 1928 had travelled from Calcutta to Allahabad to extend invitation to Motilal Nehru and Jawaharlal Nehru for the Calcutta session of the Congress. He had gone to Anand Bhavan, the ancestral house of the Nehrus. Netaji always inquired about Nehru family. Conversation was not restricted to freedom movement only. Netasji would inquire about Indira Gandhi. He even wrote asking “how is Indu” when Indira was in Switzerland with her mother Kamla Nehru.
Last Letter of Netaji
Netaji, perhaps, began to realise that Nehru did not trust him. “I can feel that you don’t like me at all”. This he wrote after the Tripura Convention of the Congress in 1939. It was a lengthy letter of 27 pages.
In Tripura convention, Nehru did not support Netaji’s candidature for Congress President. Despite that Netaji was elected Congress President for the second time. Even Mahatma Gandhi then had supported Pattavi Sitarrammayah as Congress President. But Netaji defeated Sitarrammaya with huge margin. Seeing the internal squabble in Congress Party, Netaji resigned as Congress President. The whole nation was stunned.
Hurt by Nehru
In a letter to his nephew Amiya Bose on 17 April 1939, Netaji wrote, “Nehru hurt me with his conduct. Had he been neutral in Tripura, my position would have been much stronger”. He further wrote that Nehru’s own standing had suffered. ” Nehru was hooted and jeered when he rose to speak at the convention”.
Nehru’s opposition to Netaji was exposed further when Netaji with his Azad Hind Fauz was to enter Manipur via Burma from Singapore. Nehru then while addressing a meeting in Guwahati had said that he would fight Netaji in case he tried to attack and enter India to fee India by waging a war against the British.
Honouring Bapu
Netaji always revered and honoured Mahatma Gandhi. But he did not like the way Gandhhiji favoured and supported Nehru. Netaji was not able to find out the reason and understand this affection of Gamdhi for Nehru. Netaji believed that he could successfully lead the freedom movement against the British rule with Nehru. But Nehru never wanted to give place to Netaji. For Nehru, Gandhiji’s unflinching support was enough to sideline other leaders of the freedom movement. Nehru realized the tremendous popularity of Netji Subhash Chandra Bose not only in the Congress but in whole of the country. It was this reason that Nehru thought he would lose leadership to Netaji. Finally in 1939 Netaji and Nehru parted company.
The British Government too of the same view that Netaji was more popular than Nehru. This was stated by the Home Secretary in a communication to the British rulers in London on 21 February, 1929.
At times I am surprised to find that seldom we talk or discuss Netaji’s fight for our working class, the labourers. From 1928 till 1937, Netaji was President of the Tata Steel Workers Union, for nine years at stretch. He used to raise issues of workers before the management of the company and often would get benefits for the workers of the steel plant in Jamshedpur.