All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) General Secretary G. Devarajan. File | Photo credit: H. VIBHU
The All India Forward Bloc urges the government to refrain from returning the “so-called” mortal remains of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose kept at the Renkoji Temple in Tokyo, Japan.
G. Devarajan, General Secretary of the All India Forward Bloc, at a rally to mark Netaji’s 129th birth anniversary in Delhi, also asked the government to formally accept the Mukherjee Commission report and immediately set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to declassify all remaining files related to Netaji.
The 2005 Justice Mukherjee Commission of Inquiry concluded that Bose did not die in the alleged plane crash in Taihoku, Taiwan on 18 August 1945. It said that the ashes at Renkoji Temple in Japan were not his and that he had probably escaped to the Soviet Union.
Unlike Bose’s daughter
The demand of the Forward Bloc, founded by Bose in 1939, comes even as his daughter Anita Bose Pfaff has asked all Indians to support the demand for his remains to be flown from Japan to India. Bose’s great-nephew Chandra Kumar Bose made a similar appeal to President Draupadi Murmu last month.
The Center has been in a quandary over the return of the ashes due to differences between family members and political parties, as well as a 1998 Calcutta High Court order barring the forced handover of remains until the government is conclusively satisfied about the authenticity of the ashes.
At a special event in New Delhi on Friday (Jan 23, 2026), Mr Devarajan said the Justice Manoj Kumar Mukherjee-led commission of inquiry, the latest commission of inquiry set up by the Indian government, had categorically concluded that there was no plane crash at Taihoku Airport in Taiwan on August 18, 1945.
In light of the Commission’s findings, the narrative of Netaji’s ashes being kept in the Renkoji Temple is false, baseless and misleading, he argued, arguing that any attempt to bring such so-called ashes to India would be a grave disrespect to Bose and would deeply hurt the sentiments of millions of Indians who hold Netaji in the highest esteem.
Mr Devarajan further demanded that the government immediately set up a Special Investigation Team (SIT) to declassify all remaining files relating to Bose, the Indian National Army (INA) and the Azad Hind Sarkar – the interim government of Free India set up by Netaji in exile. He emphasized that the full disclosure of the historical truth is necessary for national conscience and justice.
Published – 24 Jan 2026 21:56 IST
