Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose’s daughter Anita Bose Pfaff on Monday called for his remains to be brought back to India on the 75th anniversary of independence, saying she is convinced the remains at Tokyo’s Renkoji Temple are her father’s.
Bose Pfaff, 79, who lives in Germany, said she is ready for an attempt to extract DNA from the remains preserved at the shrine in the Japanese capital, which she described as ashes, including bones and teeth, in order to carry out tests.
“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,” she 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.
“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.
The fate of Netaji, who formed the Indian National Army to fight British rule, remains one of the great mysteries of Indian history. Bose Pfaff, the only child of Netaji, has for long contended that her father died long ago and that his remains are at Renkoji Temple.
