ePaper Nov 5, 2015

CANADA – OPINION/COMMUNITY 5 LETTERSTOTHE EDITOR Kudos to JustinTrudeau Kudos to the Liberal Party and Justin Trudeau for the landslide victory against the Conservatives and sweep- ing out Stephen Harper from power as the Prime Minster of Canada. Harper waged the poli- tics of fear, division, nega- tive and personal attacks while holding the longest election campaign in 143 years of Canada’s history, while Trudeau’s campaign was one of decency, posi- tivity and hope, and devoid of personal attacks. On the evening of Octo- ber 16, Trudeau came to the Sanatan Mandir and Cul- tural Centre of Markham. We went there with our 10-year-old grandson Jaid- en as, being first generation Indo-Canadians ourselves, we want to acquaint him personally with Canada’s political system. There he met the Mayor of Markham and the fed- eral Member of Parliament from Markham and ex- minister of defence John McCallum (who has since been named the Minister of Citizenship). They both chatted with him and gave him their autographs and had their picture taken with him. Jaiden also listened to Trudeau’s speech eagerly and, when he was leaving, requested Trudeau for his autograph, which he gladly gave. For us too it was among the happiest moments as I too shook hands with him (as I had with his late father, one of Canada’s great prime ministers, some 30 years ago when he had come to Scarborough to address an election meeting). From the bottom of our hearts we wish him and his party millions of good luck in his endeavour to govern Canada as per his party’s election mandate. Last but not least, Doug Ford, ex-Mayor Rob Ford’s brother, made a statement to the effect that looking at Justin Trudeau’s resume nobody will hire him to sweep the floor. He was right. We Ca- nadians are not that stupid to hire him for that job, but elected him instead as Prime Minister, a most demanding and powerful job — one he is eminently capable of doing, as per his resume. Never underesti- mate the intelligence of the Canadian voter, in our great democracy. — Suresh and Bhavna Patel, Markham Proud to be secular I am mighty proud of the vast majority of Hindus in Nepal, who voted to keep Nepal secular against the proposal by the Hindu Na- tional Democratic Party, al- though Hindus have a vast majority in Nepal. Similarly India where about 80 per cent of the population is Hindu, re- mains secular, not abolish- ing holidays for Muslims, Christians, etc, even after the British divided India into India and Pakistan (now Pakistan and Bangla- desh). Hinduism itself is secu- lar within the religion — as despite having 24-plus God avatars, Hindus do not fight/ discriminate on the basis of which God you pray to. In fact you can even be a non- believer — you would not be hated. Quite a few humorous movies have been made eg “Oh my God”, in which blind faith in God and giving money to temples hoping you would go to heaven, have been down- played, while suggesting one should work hard and intelligently to succeed in this very life. Though some religious/ political Hindu leaders are talking of converting oth- ers to Hindu religion, and saying Hindus should have four children, I am against it. Most educated Hindus are ignoring that call and trying to improve our lives by limiting children to two. — Krishan Mehta, Mississauga DESI EXPRESS www.desiexpressonline.com Thursday, November 5, 2015 Netaji’s death – Search for truth, or a political missile? By Dr ravi jategaonkar Not so long ago, on Sep- tember 18 to be precise, West Bengal Chief Minis- ter Mamata Banerjee for the first time opened to public the 64 files — which were until now classified — relating to the death of Netaji Sub- has Chandra Bose. Netaji’s supporters wel- comed the news, although according to them it has come too late; and demand- ed that the central govern- ment also open their files on the issue. Netaji’s death occurred on August 18, 1945 after his overloaded Japanese plane crashed in Japanese- occupied Formosa (now Taiwan). Many people in India, including his family mem- bers and supporters, re- fused at the time and have refused since to believe the fact or the circumstances of his death. Considering that the death occurred merely three days after Japan’s surren- der to the allied forces, un- doubtedly the period during which this occurred was confusing and unsettling. However, because of popularity of Subhas Bose in India and the suspicion that a foreign government had some hand in his death, many people in India were not ready to accept the re- ports of his death and de- manded to know the truth surrounding his mysterious disappearance. In spite of public de- mand, until now the Indian government has declined to declassify the Bose files and this has only added to the Bose mystery. The Government of India has, since Indepen- dence, instituted three com- missions of inquiry, two of which confirmed the death in the plane crash, but the third stated that Bose faked his own death. This report was rejected by the govern- ment without any reasons being cited. Even today, the mystery of Netaji’s disappearance or possibly his death has remained unsolved and is still a vexed question alive in peoples’mind. Not unex- pectedly, conspiracy theo- ries have sprung up in past years, accusing successive Congress governments of a ‘cover up’ and ‘spying on Netaji’s immediate family’. However, the proponents of these theories overlook a few simple facts. In the last 70 years, there were three separate periods dur- ing which a non-Congress government was in power, and they did not see fit to open these files for the same reason that was given by the successive Congress governments, namely, it might damage India’s good relations with some foreign country. According to these theo- rists, if Netaji would have returned to India alive and free, the people of India would have elected Netaji as the prime minister of In- dia. Of course, the latter part is mere conjecture on their part, since Netaji’s vision of a free India was radical- ly different than that of the Congress leaders. He was of the opinion that India needs a political system that is a mix of Fascism and Com- munism; and he was an ad- mirer of Italy’s Mussolini. Whether the Indian public would have chosen a fascist style government under the leadership of Subhas Bose over a democratically elect- ed government with Nehru and Gandhi as leaders is a question that will remain unanswered forever. One should also not for- get that Netaji’s plane crash occurred three days after Japan’s unconditional sur- render to the allied forces and, therefore, he was an absconded soldier of the enemy forces; and as such a fugitive liable to be arrested by the allied forces. It was common practice in those days for the allied countries of the WWII to hunt for such fugitives and, if necessary, to spy on his family members in order to catch him, just as they hunted for Nazis after the war ended. Mamata Banerjee’s ac- tion of declassification of state files related to Subhas Bose were viewed in polit- ical circles as a shrewd po- litical manoeuvre to score points against the Congress party and its former leaders in Bengal by showing them in poor light. This action by the Chief Minister also embarrasses the BJP which is the ruling party at the national level. The BJP promptly re- sponded by saying, “The files the WB government has made public are inter- nal files and have no inter- national ramification. How- ever, the Prime Minister is very active on the issue. He has met the Bose fam- ily members and formed a committee to examine the whole complex issue.” On the other hand, CPI (M) suspect that the real motive behind Mamata Banerjee’s opening the Bose files is to bring down Nehru-Gandhi family; and the BJP just want to test the public reaction to the files before deciding to declas- sify files that are lying with the Centre. Meanwhile, the Con- gress party on their part has demanded that the govern- ment declassify all files relating to Subhas Bose to put an end to all speculation and innuendo. From a historical per- spective, the truth behind the Bose mystery should come out, and for that a special investigative team consisting of historians, non-political leaders and civil servants from the min- istry need to review all rel- evant papers and reveal to the public the real story of Subhas Bose. However, this search for truth surrounding Netaji’s death should not be tied to a political party or to the leaders of the past or pres- ent. And more importantly, there should not be any attempt by politicians to score political points based on the revelations that would come out from such an enquiry. Only then would Netaji’s disappearance or death, In- dia’s longest running politi- cal mystery, be historically considered as truly having come to an end. — Dr Ravi Jategaonkar works as a consultant and can be contacted at ravijate@gmail.com Mamata Banerjee’s action of declassifying state files related to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose were viewed in political circles as a shrewd political manoeuvre to score points against the Congress party and its former leaders in Bengal, as also the BJP at the Centre

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