Nehru "called" Netaji war criminal? Fresh document nails the lie, "Modi govt sources" behind fake letter
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| The fake letter which triggered controversy |
Amidst raging controversy over whether Jawaharlal Nehru considered Subhas Chandra Bose a war criminal, a fresh document from the Netaji files released by the Government of India has come to light, which shows that Nehru rejected any such attempt which may have been made after Netaji’s death.
Marked “Secret/Immediate”, and dated April 2, 1956, the document, which carries the National Archives of India stamp, relates to Nehru’s meeting with Suresh Chandra Bose, Netaji’s brother, and Shah Nawaz Khan in the morning. It is marked “Prime Minister’s Secretariat” at the top.
Here, Nehru has been quoted as saying, “I told Shri Suresh Bose that the question of War Criminals does not arise and we are not going to ask the USA or any other country as to whether Netaji is in the list of their War Criminals. Possibly, their answer would be that he believed he was dead.”
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| Authentic Nehru document |
Forming part of the 202 pages of Netaji documents (click HERE), the Nehru quote has come to light following the recent release of another set of Netaji files, in which a stenographer quotes Nehru as writing to Prime Minister Clement Attlee, “I understand from a reliable source that Subhas Chandra Bose, your war criminal, has been allowed to enter Russian territory.”
The stenographer, in his affidavit before the Khosla Commission, further quotes Nehru, “This is clear treachery and a betrayal of faith by the Russians. As Russia has been an ally of the British-Americans, it should not have done it. Please take note of it and do what you consider proper and fit.”
The stenographer’s affidavit is qualified by, “contents of the letter as far as I remember”, and does not say whether the letter was sent to Attlee. It merely states, “Nehru gave me four papers from his writing pad to make on the typewriter four copies of a letter, which he would dictate to me on my typewriter with which I also complied.”
While top historian Ramchandra Guha immediately declared that the stenographer was “seeking publicity and Nehru would never have written such a letter”, another National Archives document on the Imperial War Museum of London came to light, which said that UK “did not draw up a list of Indian war criminals.”
Pointing out that such a list was “drawn up only for Japanese and German nationals”, the document further says, “Even if Netaji’s name had been on any such list, his name would have been removed following his death soon after World War II.”
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| Rahul's Kanwal's post quoting Modi sources |
Meanwhile a fake letter, purportedly “leaked” by circles close to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, started taking rounds. While the letter was supposed to have been written by Nehru, it misspelled Jawahalal as “Jawharlal”, calls British Prime Minister UK Prime Minister, apart from several other glaring errors which Nehru would never have made. Unsigned, it does not bear any stamp of National Archives of India, either.
The letter went viral on social media after Rahul Kanwal, “India Today” managing-editor wrote in a Facebook post (subsequently withdrawn, though available on social media as a screenshot) just ahead of the release of 100 new Netaji documents, “Sources in the Modi government who have knowledge of the Netaji files have told India Today that in one of the files Jawaharlal Nehru referred to Subhas Chandra Bose as a 'war criminal’.”
Kanwal claimed, “This letter was written to the Prime Minister of England Clement Attlee on Dec 27, 1945”, after which it quotes from the Nehru “letter”. He adds, “This letter is likely to set off political furore in India, as if feeds the long-held notion that Nehru was unfair to the legacy of the great Netaji Bose.”
The letter went viral on social media after Rahul Kanwal, “India Today” managing-editor wrote in a Facebook post (subsequently withdrawn, though available on social media as a screenshot) just ahead of the release of 100 new Netaji documents, “Sources in the Modi government who have knowledge of the Netaji files have told India Today that in one of the files Jawaharlal Nehru referred to Subhas Chandra Bose as a 'war criminal’.”
Kanwal claimed, “This letter was written to the Prime Minister of England Clement Attlee on Dec 27, 1945”, after which it quotes from the Nehru “letter”. He adds, “This letter is likely to set off political furore in India, as if feeds the long-held notion that Nehru was unfair to the legacy of the great Netaji Bose.”
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