Our Worli home was watched, phone tapped: Subhash Chandra Bose’s nephew

MUMBAI: In the late 1970s, the suave Ardhendu Bose, a textile magnate's son, was famously recognized as the Bombay Dyeing man. He had taken up the modelling assignment on a lark just because Maureen Wadia wanted him to.

Almost four decades later, on a balmy Sunday afternoon, the ruddy-faced Bengali sips tea in his spacious Colaba apartment, and talks about his uncle, Subhash Chandra Bose. The name of the nationalist leader is mired in a controversy after documents reveal that the Jawaharlal Nehru government ordered surveillance on the Bose family.

Ardhendu's father Sailesh Chandra, who died in 1984, was Netaji's younger brother. The former model, who owns a leather business, is the only Bose family member born and brought up in Mumbai. "Am I shocked or surprised at the latest revelations? The answer is no. My dad always suspected he was being watched and his Worli home phone tapped till the time Indira Gandhi was alive. Our family always had this suspicion," Bose told TOI. "There was always a feeling of insecurity in the government. My father was the last of the Bose brothers alive."

Ardhendu believes there was no plane crash on August 18, 1945. "It was a fib. Nehru, Stalin, Mountbatten and the Congress Party never wanted him back. Netaji would have come back as a hero because he was the most popular man in India, a man of destiny."

He added, "We presume Bose reached Russia and was alive till at least 1957-58. He was either shot in Russia or sent to Siberia where he perished. After all, Stalin wanted favours from India."

Maintaining that the Indian public psyche was charged by the image of his uncle, Ardhendu, who was also a martial arts expert, claimed the British worried about Netaji and the Indian National Army. It was this that compelled the Raj to transfer power. "They called it transfer of power to retain their (British) prestige and save face. It wasn't because of Gandhi, Nehru or Congress," he said.

The nephew accused the Congress party of not wanting the matter concerning Netaji to come out because of Nehru's role. "I feel prime minister Modi is inclined for closure on this issue. He has no axe to grind." When told that the Modi government, had in fact, refused to declassify the Bose papers, Ardhendu said perhaps this government could be behind the latest leaks.

Netaji was very close to Sailesh Chandra. "He was my father's mentor. Subhash Chandra was also dedicated to his mother. He once told my father that one can never repay our mother's debt."

In 1941, when Netaji escaped from house arrest in Kolkata, Sailesh Chandra, who resembled his elder brother, was arrested by mistake. "They gave him the third degree treatment to find out about his brother's whereabouts, which he did not know," said Ardhendu.