IOC urges DNA test on Subhas Chandra Bose’s remains

The Indian Overseas Congress (IOC) in London, affiliated to the Indian National Congress, has urged the government of India to carry out a DNA test on Subhas Chandra Bose's mortal remains, kept in an urn at Renkoji Temple in Tokyo.

This request comes so as to scientifically establish that the remains kept in the Japanese temple are actually those of Bose.

Writing to Indian High Commissioner in Britain Ranjan Mathai, IOC president D.L. Kalhan, said: "Today the 18 August marks the 70th anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose's reported death in Taiwan following a plane crash.

"However, till date his mortal remains, said to be kept at Renkoji Temple in Tokyo, have not been returned to India."

"The Indian Overseas Congress hereby requests the Government of India to urgently carry out a DNA test on the remains to determine once and for all whether they are his or not and put the uncertainty to rest," he added.

Bose, one of the most popular figures of the Indian freedom movement, was twice elected president of the Indian National Congress.

The IOC's intervention comes at a time when there are reports that Bose's only child Anita Pfaff, who lives in Germany, is keen on closure of the matter. Her views are obviously paramount on the subject.

A section of Bose's nephews and nieces and other relatives and followers have strenuously refused to accept that he died after an air tragedy on August 18, 1945; and have thereby created a hurdle in the path of the Indian government acting on the issue.

Both — the Japanese doctor, Taneyoshi Yoshimi, who treated Bose after he suffered third degree burns, in a Japanese Army field hospital in Taipei and declared him dead, and his ADC Colonel Habibur Rahman, who survived the crash and saw him pass away — testified under oath to confirm what had happened.

With DNA technology having advanced by leaps and bounds, the Britain-based experts who were involved in DNA tests which identified the buried remains of Czar Nicholas II, Czarina Alexandra and daughter Anastasia 74 years after they were killed, told RAY it may be possible to conduct tests on bone particles or teeth which are reportedly in Bose's remains in addition to ashes.

(IANS/RAY)