Was Gumnami Baba just a Netaji impostor?

In a quirk of fate, a new dimension has been added to India's oldest political mystery by the youngest chief minister in the country. On February 13, three members from Subhas Chandra Bose's family accompanied by members of pressure group "Mission Netaji", including this writer, met Akhilesh Yadav over the controversy surrounding the disappearance of Netaji. The meeting lasted for over 75 minutes and was marked by deep interest on the part of the UP chief minister.

If you are wondering why a young Yadav would wade into a controversy which first began to make headlines in the days of his grandfather, here is a brief outline.

There are three theories on the table about what really happened to Netaji.

One, he was reported killed in an air crash in Taiwan. Two, it has been alleged, that he was killed in USSR. Three, he was said to be in India, living in the disguise of a holy man known as Bhagwanji or Gumnami Baba in various parts of UP till 1985, when he would have been 88 years old.

The air crash theory is questioned because it is entirely based on "eyewitness" accounts. While they appear genuine on the face of it, these accounts are sketchy as they are marred by contradictions and loopholes which shouldn't have been there if indeed Bose's death was witnessed by some people as claimed.

That's the reason Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry was appointed in 1999 following an order of the Calcutta High Court. In 1998 the court was informed by the central government counsel that "the information that Netaji died in the plane-crash on August 18, 1945 is full of loopholes, contradictions and, therefore, inconclusive".

It is to be borne in mind that the people best suited to find out what constitutes evidence are judges and lawyers.

Unable to find any direct evidence of Bose's reported death, MK Mukherjee, a former Supreme Court judge, rejected the air crash theory "on the basis of robust circumstantial evidence" showing that a fake news of Bose's death was planted to ensure his passage towards Soviet Russia. What happened thereafter the judge couldn't tell as he was not given access to some vital security and intelligence related archives during his Russia visit.

The commission looked into the UP holy man theory and concluded that the evidence for it was not "clinching". Which is to say that there was evidence, but it was not clinching. In 2010, some off-the-record comments of Justice Mukherjee were inadvertently recorded by a documentary film maker. The judge said that his personal opinion was that the holy man was Bose, but he was not able to prove it on account of a resistance from the government and non-cooperation of certain members of the Bose family. Mukherjee has since then repeated his personal opinion in private meetings.

In 2013, the Allahabad High Court gave a verdict on PILs filed in 1986 by Subhas Chandra Bose's niece Lalita Bose and another one by Shakti Singh of Faizabad, in whose house Bhagwanji had lived last from 1983 to '85. When the cigar-chomping baba, who never allowed himself to be photographed, was reported dead, his belongings, largely books, and correspondence in Bangla and English were scoured through by the local police.

Some kind of connection to Bose was revealed. Intrigued and personally convinced that Bhagwanji was her uncle, Lalita moved the court seeking an inquiry after she was rebuffed by the state government.

The Allahabad High Court, in its 2013 order, surveyed the entire matter and agreed that "there appears to be no room for doubt that there was substantial oral and documentary evidence which prima facie makes out a case for scientific investigation with regard to the identity of late Gumnami Baba".

Stating that the "materials and belongings of Gumnami Baba are national assets and must be protected for future generations", the court directed that they be moved to a local museum. The court also suggested that an inquiry headed by a retired judge be carried out to ascertain the identity of Bhagwanji, "treated as Netaji by the substantial section of public" - including some of Bose's former associates whose integrity was not questionable.

In March 2013, an adjournment notice was moved in the state Assembly by members cutting across party lines, including the Congress. All wanted an inquiry to figure out Bhagwanji's identity. UP Assembly hasn't seen a debate lately where all the parties came together to take a similar stand on an issue.

So, last week, recapitulating all this and much more to the UP chief minister, the Bose family and Mission Netaji members pressed for an inquiry as suggested by the Allahabad High Court. We emphasised that the terms of reference of this probe should include the "allegations that said Baba was an imposter and/or a foreign spy and/or a 'dummy' set up to misguide the people of India, and if these allegations are found to be true, to identify the perpetrators of such abominable criminality".

Horrendous allegations have been made that Netaji was actually killed in Soviet Russia and an imposter was set up by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) to misguide the people of India.

This warrants a thorough inquiry so that this baseless conspiracy theory can be quashed. IB does seem to figure in the Bhagwanji matter but from what one can make out from the available information, the imposter bit is a preposterous thought.

A good thing about the meeting was that Akhilesh Yadav was affable as he heard us. In between, he threw his personal impressions and recollections - like how his father Mulayam Singh Yadav came to be addressed as "Netaji" by his supporters. It was following Mulayam's unveiling of a statue of Bose in Lucknow years ago.

For good measures, before we met him, Yadav had sanctioned Rs 1.5 crore for the transfer and preservation of Bhagwanji's belongings to the Ram Katha Museum in Ayodhya.

We requested him to take the next natural step. If Gumnami Baba's belongings are going to be displayed in a museum dedicated to Lord Ram, the least the nation needs to know is who he really was.