Former RSS chief's letter junks Bose crash theory

LUCKNOW: A letter written by the RSS' fifth chief K S Sudarshan on June 7, 2007 categorically states Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose returned from Russia in or around 1953, and lived as Gumnami Baba in different parts of the country.

The letter was found on Tuesday, days after one by RSS' second sarsanghchalak M S Golwalkar was found among Gumnami's Baba's effects in the Faizabad treasury. Sudarshan's letter, addressed to Shakti Singh, the owner of Ram Bhawan, where Gumnami Baba lived the final years of his life, states that the news of Netaji's death in Taihoku plane crash was "presumed" to be true.

"But the truth is that two of India's ambassadors to Russia, Vijaya Lakshmi Pandit and S Radhakrishnan, had met Netaji in person inside the jail," Sudarshan writes, adding that both the ambassadors were instructed not to spread the news about Bose's survival.

"It is for this neglect (meted out to Netaji) that he was forced to lead life as Gumnami Baba, either in the Himalayas or in and around Ayodhya," Sudarshan wrote, adding that for a long time the people of the country had no knowledge about him. "The same letter was also published in my book, 'Bhagwanji Se Netaji Tak' in December 2008," said Singh, adding that Sudarshan at times regretted that RSS could not act in time to help Bose.

On April 23, 2005, speaking in Kolkata, Sudarshan had claimed Netaji was alive till 1985 and did not die in the Taihoku air crash. Sudarshan had also demanded that the Justice M K Mukherjee Commission on Netaji be sent to Russia by the then UPA government to examine the relevant documents.