NETA JI, THE SAINT -GUMNAMI BABA - TIMES OF INDIA

Sep 07 2015 : The Times of India (Delhi)
Netaji, The Saint?

http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=Netaji-The-Saint-07092015010013  

(This article was published in Times of India in two parts oon 7th and 8th Sep 2015. Both these parts are reproduced here and in addition HIS LAST STOP is also included )

         IT'S ONE OF THE GREATEST MYSTERIES OF MODERN INDIA: WAS GUMNAMI BABA, ALSO KNOWN AS THE ASCETIC OF UP'S FAIZABAD, ACTUALLY NETAJI SUBHAS CHANDRA BOSE? SUBHRO NIYOGI, SAIKAT RAY AND A TEAM OF REPORTERS TRACK DOWN SOME PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY INTERACTED WITH HIM AND ARE CONVINCED THAT IT WAS NONE OTHER THAN THE CHARISMATIC LEADER HIMSELF, LIVING UNDER AN ASSUMED IDENTITY. READ ON TO FIND OUT WHAT THEY HAVE TO SAY



       A moment that lasted a fraction of a second 33 years ago is etched so vividly in Sura jit Dasgupta's memory that a mere recollection triggers a myriad emotions. Dasgupta's facial muscles twitch, lips quiver and eyes turn misty as he strives to utter something, stutters and then gives up.

After several minutes of internal strife, Dasgupta composes himself. “He was seated before me like every day when I had an urge to see him. I stole a glance and was so dazzled by the glow that emanated from within that I had to immediately lower my gaze. It is a sight I will never forget,“ he mumbles.

The “he“ Dasgupta refers to was Bhagwanji, an ascetic in Faizabad, UP , who very few “knew“ to be Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Here was the man who had been pronounced dead 37 years ago, a death millions refused to believe. Many felt he would return to India one day to finally solve one of the most baffling mysteries of
modern times. And there he was! “Netaji's associate and our guru, Sunil Gupta, had been visiting Bhagwanji for two decades. In the initial years, it was very secretive. He wouldn't disclose where he was going. All that we knew was that he had some very important mission. Later, he cryptically said: `Contact has been established'. I knew at once he was referring to Netaji. I was thrilled. In the years that followed, I would accompany Gupta till the station as he took a train twice a year to travel to Neemsar and later Faizabad, once during Durga Puja and again on January 23, Netaji's birthday . It was much later, in 1982, that Gupta decided it was finally time we could be let into the exclusive circle, and we travelled to Faizabad to meet Bhagwanji,“ Dasgupta recalls.

It was Netaji's elder brother, Suresh Chandra Bose, who had tasked Gupta with exploring every news and rumour that surfaced on Netaji's return to India. Gupta faithfully went to Shaulmari and other places where it was rumoured Netaji had returned in the guise of an ascetic. He was disappointed on each occasion, till he finally met Bhagwanji at Neemsar in 1962.

A few ground rules were laid before Dasgupta's first meeting; the most important being not to look at Bhagwanji. He generally communicated with a short curtain drawn between him and the visitors that hid his face. That is how Dasgupta met him as well.

“We would go to his house every day , have breakfast and then go to shop for the day's meals. While Saraswati Devi would cook, we would discuss world politics.After lunch, it could be about theology , music, even metaphysics. Sometimes, the discussions went on till the wee hours next morning. We would sit transfixed, listen with rapt attention and take down notes.He predicted the disintegration of USSR that was unthinkable then, talked about the mess in the Vietnam War. He even remarked that communism would die in the place of its birth. During the Bangladesh Liberation War, he followed the developments keenly and we believe he even passed on strategic instructions that helped decide the war,“ Dasgupta says.

After the first two-three days, Bhagwanji trusted that the youths would follow the rules, and stopped drawing the curtain. It was on one of these days Dasgupta was seized by the irresistible desire to steal a glance at the person hero-worshipped across Bengal. And what a sight it was! “There was no mistaking it was Netaji. His hair had thinned, much more than what we were used to seeing in his photographs. He had a flowing beard. But the features were exactly the same. Only , he had aged. The eyes were so powerful I had to turn away immediately . I realized then that the patriot our parents and we had worshipped since we were kids had reached a higher plane of existence. He had become a mahatma,“ he recalls.

Rita Banerjee of Faizabad, too, refers to a “bright light“ emanating from Bhagwanji. “The aura was so intense that I could not establish eye contact with him,“ says Rita, whom Bhagwanji called “Phoolwa Rani“ and her husband “Bachha“. Gyani Gurjeet Singh Khalsa, the chief priest of Gurdwara Brahamakund Sahib that overlooks the raging Saryu river, recounts a similar experience when he saw Bhagwanji face-to-face. “I was a 17-year-old when I saw him. The radiance on his face was astounding. It cannot be explained in words,“ he recounts.

Dasgupta, who is now 64, and some others who are convinced that Bhagwanji was Netaji, are waging a silent legal battle against the Indian government to extract the truth and discredit a lie they claim has been propagated for seven decades. In later years, Bhagwanji talked about the escape to USSR via Diren in Manchuria after a “concocted air crash“. He talked vividly about how prison camps functioned in Siberia.

Dasgupta is among the very few alive to have met Bhagwanji. Bijoy Nag, a former auditor at a private firm, is another. Though he never looked at Bhagwanji, he can recall each meeting with amazing clarity . “On my first visit, I touched his feet while he remained behind a curtain. Blessing me, he said: `
Your dream is now a reality'. I was 31 and thrilled,“ recalls Nag, now 76. In all, he had met the ascetic 14 times between 1970 and 1985, and each meeting was memorable.

Most of Dasgupta's visits were when the ascetic was living in Purani Bustee.But it was at Brahma Kund (Ayodhya) where Bhagwanji stayed for a few months between 1975 and 1976 that Nag was in closest proximity with him. “I stayed in the room next to his. I could have looked at him any time if I wished because by then, the curtain had been drawn.He had only instructed us not to look at him and we didn't disobey him,“ says Nag, who had on Bhagwanji's request collected and delivered photographs of Netaji's mother, father and school teacher.

More stoic than Dasgupta, Nag is in control of his emotions but there is no mistaking the glimmer in his eyes when the subject is discussed. “Though I didn't look at him, I don't have an iota of doubt it was Netaji speaking to me. It is an unshakeable truth,“ he says with such definitiveness that one realizes it is backed by absolute conviction.

It was because of his aunt Lila Roy -who had been in constant touch with Netaji between 1922 and January 1941 -that Nag got the opportunity to meet Bhagwanji. It was Sketch of INA secret service agent Pabitra Mohan Roy who told Lila about Bhagwanji in December 1962 after another Netaji associate, Atul Sen, broke the news on his return from Neemsar. His meeting Bhagwanji had been sheer providence. Sen, who had contested the legislative seat from Dhaka in the 1930s on Netaji's insistence and won, was in 1962 travelling to various places in UP on “change“ on doctor's advice.

In April, he reached Neemsar, a pilgrimage site near Lucknow. It is here that he heard from locals about a Bengali mahatma who lived in an abandoned Shiva temple. Sen's curiosity was piqued and d went to meet the ascetic. He finally met d him after several attempts -and instant ly knew it was Netaji. Over the next few n days, he met Bhagwanji many times.

. An ecstatic but cautious Atul Sen re) turned to Kolkata in 1962 and disclosed s the news to Pabitra Mohan Roy and his torian RC Majumdar. Sen also wrote to e PM Jawaharlal Nehru on August 28, 1962.

“Netaji is alive and is engaged in spiritual e practice somewhere in India... From the talks I had with him, I could understand that he is yet regarded as enemy No. 1 of Allied powers and that there is a secret protocol that binds the Indian government to deliver him to Allied `justice' if found alive. If you can assure me otherwise, I may try to persuade him to return to open life,“ he wrote. In the reply dated August 31, 1962, Nehru denied the existence of any such protocol.

Lila, meanwhile, resolved to serve Bhagwanji till her last day. From 1963 till her death in 1970, she would send money and sundry items to him every month through emissaries. Bhagwanji was fond of typical Bengali dishes like ghonto, sukto and keema. During his birthday celebrations, a closed-door affair with some family members and close acquaintances, delicacies served included mishti doi and khejur gur payesh.

It wasn't just people from Bengal who were meeting Bhagwanji. From December 1954 to April 1957, UP CMs Sampurnanand and Benarasi Dasgupta were in constant touch with Bhagwanji.Their letters as well as those from former railway minister Ghani Khan Chowdhury and other important leaders were found in Bhagwanji's belongings that are now in Faizabad Treasury .

(With additional reporting from Faizabad by Arunav Sinha) To Be Continued





PART - 11  Times of India 8th Sep 2015 page 16

epaper 08 2015 : The Times of India (Delhi) On The Gumnami Trail The Justice Mukherjee Commission concluded that Netaji didn't die in the Taihoku air crash. And there is a recent court order to inquire into the identity of Gumnami Baba. Subhro Niyogi & Saikat Ray trace the ascetic's journey over three decades and come up with some startling facts It is one of the most enduring mysteries of modern day India, one that has baffled three generations of truth-seekers. And it continues for over 68 years with political leaders, bureaucrats, diplomats, and agencies trying to establish that Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose died in the Taihoku plane crash in Taiwan on August 18, 1945 -which the Justice Mukherjee Commission, set up to investigate the theory , categorically dismissed. Recently , the Uttar Pradesh government decided to set up a museum at Faizabad to preserve the articles used by an ascetic who bore a striking resemblance to Netaji. This is the first initiative at the government level following an order of the Allahabad HC in January 2013 giving credence to the findings of the Mukherjee panel, which held after a seven-year inquiry into Bose's whereabouts post-August 18, 1945 that Netaji didn't die in the plane crash. Mukherjee concluded that there was no such incident in Taiwan that day . He also stated that the ash preserved at the Renkoji Temple in Tokyo were those of a Japanese, Ichiro Okura, who had been cremated. Incidentally , even Mahatma Gandhi had not bought the plane crash theory . In January 1946, he asserted his belief that Netaji was alive and would appear at the right moment. A week before the naval mutiny , Gandhi insisted on speaking about Netaji in the present tense. According to some, Nehru was said to have received a letter from Bose saying he was in Russia and wanted to escape to India. He would arrive via Chitral, where one of Sarat Bose's sons would receive him. The Lucknow Bench of Al lahabad HC didn't stop at asking the UP government to scientifically preserve the articles in a museum. It directed the government to set up a committee of experts under a retired HC judge to hold an inquiry on the identity of the late Gumnami Baba, the ascetic from Faizabad who was cremated on August 18, 1985. In essence, the order takes the findings of the Mukherjee panel forward. Mukherjee, in his report, hinted at the striking resemblance between Netaji before 1945 and Bhagwanji or Gumnami Baba. “ Apparently there is no reason for not acting or relying upon the evidence of witnesses, particularly those who had seen Netaji before 1945 and also met Bhagwanji or Gumnami Baba face to face, more so when their evidence regarding the frequent visits of some freedom fighters and some politicians and former members of INA on January 23 and during the Durga Puja is supported by the fact that letters written by them...were found in Rambhavan, Faizabad...“ the report says. According to Gyani Gurjeet Singh Khalsa, chief priest of Gurudwara Brahamakund Sahib where Bhagwanji had lived for six months before moving to Ram Bhawan, Army and cops as well as officials from the administration would clandestinely meet Bhagwanji in the cover of darkness, generally after 11pm. “They all came in black Ambassador cars,“ he recounts. On September 7, 1963, Lila Roy sent a letter to Netaji's close friend Dilip Roy on Bhagwanji's instruction. “I wanted to tell you something about your friend. He is alive; in India,“ she wrote. Roy's death in 1970 was a big blow to Bhagwanji and he admitted so in a letter written to pay homage to her. Leading handwriting expert B Lal, who compared the handwriting of this letter with Netaji's writings, said they were an exact match. The reclusive and mysterious ascetic, who later came to be known as Bhagwanji and later still as Gumnami Baba, arrived at Shringar Nagar in Lucknow's Alam Bagh area in 1955, barely two years after Stalin's death. Click To EnlargeBhagwanji lived in a rented house in Shringar Nagar for two years in relative anonymity before moving to Neemsar, near the Indo-Nepal border, in 1957. It was only in April 1962 that Atul Sen, an associate of Netaji, met and recognized the ascetic.Thereafter, many people from Bengal began visiting him, particularly during Durga Puja and on January 23, Netaji's birthday. It took years for the ascetic, who was always on his guard and behind a curtain, to open up. But he remained wary, frequently changing his lodgings. The fears weren't unfound ed, say Netaji loyalists. They cite documents referred to in the `Transfer of Power, Vol-VI' that clearly establishes that the British government knew of the existence of Netaji after August 18, 1945. A top secret letter of Sr F Mudie, home member, viceroy's executive council, to Sur E Jenkins dated August 23, 1945, revealed that five days after the alleged air crash, they were thinking of taking a decision on the treatment of Bose as a war criminal and the consequences they may have to confront. Many of those who had met Bhagwanji during this period have no doubt that it was Netaji. Though most of them are no longer alive, their emphatic deposition before the Mukherjee Commission is proof of their conviction. On September 17, 1985, it was declared that Bhagwanji had died of a cardiovascular failure at 9.45pm the previous day . On September 18, the doctor certified the death. On September 19, a bier-like structure was cremated at Guptar Ghat on the bank of the river Saryu, Faizabad, at 4pm. No one was allowed to see his face. Physician P Banerjee, who was present at the cremation, later disclosed that it was not Bhagwanji whose body was consigned to flames. There is another mystery .A matchbox containing seven teeth, assumed to be those of Bhagwanji, was sent for DNA tests to the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Kolkata and to a Hyderabad-based lab.The latter's report was inconclusive. The former gave a negative report. But Netaji researcher Anuj Dhar questions the very authenticity of the report and points to a “scoop“ in a local daily that reported the finding six months before the report was signed and sent by the CFSL director to the Mukherjee panel. “For some reason the expert who supervised the DNA tests was not willing to appear before the commission.He did so only after repeated summons,“ Dhar says. While Dhar is perturbed by the UP government's silence on the inquiry the HC judges had stated in their order, he is glad that a museum is finally under way to scientifically preserve the ascetic's contents for re-examination. In their observation on a case (No. 929 of 1986) filed by Netaji's niece Lalita Bose, Justice Devi Prasad Singh and Justice Virendra Kumar Dixit observed that during the search of Bhagwanji's house, “a large number of belongings and literature associated with the INA in general and Subhas Chandra Bose in particular came to light. There were a large number of family photographs, reports of inquiry commission related to the death of Netaji etc. It also transpired that a special ceremony used to be held in the room of Bhagwanji each January 23 which, incidentally , is the birthday of Subhas Chandra Bose and that on that day , no person from Faizabad was allowed to visit him. Some persons from Kolkata used to come and stay with him for that day“. HIS LAST STOP -  TOI 8TH SEP 2015  http://epaperbeta.timesofindia.com/Article.aspx?eid=31808&articlexml=His-last-stop-08092015014070 Sep 08 2015 : The Times of India (Delhi) His last stop   Located on the busy Faiza bad-Ayodhya Road and close to the circuit house, Ram Bhawan, over the past few decades, has become a household name not only among residents of Faizabad, but also for millions of Netaji fans who view it as a temple that housed their idol and one of India's most valiant sons in exile, for almost three years. This was Bhagwanji's last stop, where he lived from November 1983 till his death on September 16, 1985.Recollecting the days spent with the ascetic whom he called Gumnami Baba, Thakur Shakti Singh says: “It was around mid-1983 that my father was asked by Dr RP Mishra, a surgeon at the district hospital, to rent out to him the small quarter at the back, which has a separate entry. He said it was for his `dada' who wanted peace and quiet for his spiritual practice, which he cannot get at home.“ Click To EnlargeInitially reluctant, Singh finally agreed to rent the room to the ascetic. After moving in, Gumnami Baba had a very strict policy on meeting visitors. He met very few people and only during late evening hours after he had finished his `sadhana'.The fortunate few who got to meet Bhagwanji were convinced he had special powers. “Once a person entered Ram Bhawan, he would be completely overwhelmed by Gumnami Baba's presence. The only person who had full access round-the-clock was his caregiver, the late Saraswati Devi Shukla, whom Baba used to call `Jagdambe'.“ Lalita Bose, Netaji's niece, visited Ram Bhawan in February 1986 after Bhagwanji's death. As soon as she saw the items in his room, she began to weep and said they belonged to Netaji. Later she urged the district magistrate to intervene, and even met then UP CM Veer Bahadur Singh. The latter suggested she move court. After the matter was brought to the notice of the court, the district administration was asked to shift 2,760 articles kept in Bhagwanji's room to the district treasury in as many as 25 trunks. After Bhagwanji's death, an idea struck Singh. He used to see children playing around the room where Bhagwanji lived.“I called the children and asked them to describe the person who used to stay there. I also hired an artist to make the sketch on the basis of the children's description. When the artist turned the canvas towards us, we were astounded by the similarities between the sketch of Gumnami Baba and Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose as he appeared in photographs,“ recalls Singh. ******************************************************