Netaji died in Taihoku, no need for more research: Italy envoy

Kolkata (WB), Jan 23 (PTI) As doubts prevail over Indian
freedom fighter Subhas Chandra Bose's mysterious disappearance, Italy's Ambassador in India Alessandro Quaroni, whose parents were close to Netaji, Friday said he saw no point in further research claiming that the leader had died in 1945 in an air crash at Taihoku.

"I personally do not see the point of research because
unfortunately, the person Netaji died, but his message lived
on and still remains," Quaroni told newsmen after delivering
the 'Netaji Oration' at the leader's ancestral house here.

Stating that an Australian historian had conducted
'the most extensive research' in establishing the exact
circumstances of Netaji's death, Quaroni said, "I think
inspite of the legend that (Subhas) Chandra Bose has not
died, probably his death really happened in August '45."

Following a public outcry against the government's
view that Netaji died in the Taihoku air crash, it set up
three enquiry commissions -- the Shah Nawaz Commission, the
Khosla Commission and the Justice Manoj Kumar Mukherjee
Commission -- to look into the matter.

While Shah Nawaz and Khosla agreed that Netaji was,
indeed, killed in the Taihoku air crash, the Mukherjee
Commission, however, concluded that Netaji was actually alive
when the crash is said to have taken place.

Quaroni replied in the negative when asked whether his
parents were in possession of any document indicating Netaji's
death in the Taihoku crash.

"But I don't know if there is any Japanese report.
After all, there is a possibility of a plane crash. At that
time Taiwan, where the crash occured, was under Japanese
dominion. So if there is any written proof or record of the
circumstances, that should be in the Japanese records," he
said.

Alessandro Quaroni's father Pietro Quaroni, who was
the then Italian Ambassador to Afghanistan, had given Netaji a
false passport in the name of Orlando Mazzotta in Kabul during
the leader's great escape in 1941 from the very house in
Kolkata which now houses the Netaji Research Bureau.

"What is important is that the core message from
(Subhas) Chandra Bose gathers momentum. Even his temporary
rivalry with Nehru and Gandhi subsided because the two of them
recognised that he had, after all, the right view that it
would not be possible to obtain India's independence through
peaceful ways," Alessandro Quaroni said.

Earlier, delivering the Netaji Oration, 2009 on 'The
Kabul Connection: Subhas Chandra Bose, Pietro Quaroni and
Indo-Italian Relations,' the Italian envoy dwelt at length
about his parents relationship with Netaji.

Quaroni said while his father Pietro had always tried
to procure help in Netaji's mission from the axis forces, his
mother acted as the secret messenger keeping contact with
Netaji at his hiding place in Kabul.

Believing Netaji might travel from Afghanistan through
the middle east to Europe, the British had ordered his
assassination in Turkey. Bose, however, travelled via the
Soviet Union to Germany using the name and the passport of
Orlando Mazzotta which Pietro Quaroni had arranged for him.