I want the matter settled before I pass away

Anita Bose Pfaff

Priyanka Dasgupta,TNN | Sep 20, 2015, KOLKATA: Netaji's daughter Anita B. Pfaff is open to new evidence over her father's disappearance. She wants Prime Minister Narendra Modi to declassify the Netaji files lying with the Centre. Anita wants the mystery solved before she passes away. 

Unlike her mother Emilie Schenkl, Anita believes that the Netaji's reported death in the Taihoku air crash in 1945 is the most convincing among all other versions. Yet, she is open to truth and would welcome evidence one way or the other. 

Anita is happy that chief minister Mamata Banerjee declassified the 64 Netaji files lying with the state government. "I am glad that chief minister Mamata Banerjee and her government finally chose to declassify the documents. I understand that there are thousands of pages that had to be scanned for this step. I do thank the men and women who have undertaken this task - those who took the decision as well as those who carried them out," she said. 

Emilie Schenkl

Anita didn't hide her thoughts about her father, a day after chief minister Mamata Banerjee said that Netaji might have been alive after 1945. "Initially, when I was a child, my mother and I hoped that my father had not died in the plane crash in 1945 and that he would return to us and his country one day. As time went by, however, these hopes seemed in vain. Latest when I was present in the interview with one of the Japenese officers surviving the plane crash at Taipe in August 1945, I became convinced that he did die in the plane crash after all. However, I keep an open and rational mind. I am looking forward to getting a copy of the DVDs with the scan copies of the files and reading them. I certainly would welcome evidence one way or the other, since I very much wish to have the matter settled before I pass away having to leave it to my children. In any case, it would be welcome to learn something new about my father's life from these and other files. His life was after all much more important than his death to India and all of us," Netaji's daughter said. 

Responding to questions on the expectations she has over the declassification of Netaji files, Anita said: "I am sure that there will be many details of interest - corroborating other evidence, maybe bringing out some so far unknown details. As a social scientist, I would welcome the declassification of all the old files for this reason. I do not expect any earth-shattering news about his death." 

Together with declassification of the Netaji files, Anita wants a DNA test on the remains preserved at the Renkoji temple. "The so called mystery over my father's death might best be clarified by the governments of India and Japan allowing an attempt to make a DNA-test of the remains at Renkoji temple. There are after all bone pieces left after the cremation, so that extraction of DNA may be possible." 

Anita is also upset with the way IB officers snooped on the members of the Netaji family long after independence in 1971. "In a way, I wonder what they were after. On the other hand, keeping in mind that the Indian administration was set up by the British colonial rulers first and foremost to control India and that it continued to operate along similar lines after independence, it is not terribly surprising. After all, administrations for a long time had this duty. It is only recently and gradually that administrations are modernized and viewed as service providers. I don't know to what extent that attitude has permeated the Indian administrations." 

The social scientist also took it as a violation of the family's privacy. "It certainly is a violation of my family's privacy. I just wonder whether they had at least the decency to then have the letters delivered or whether letters were also confiscated," Anita said. 

While sharing her conservation with her mother over her father's disappearance, Anita said: "My mother was devastated at first after learning about my father's death. She wrote to an acquaintance that she probably would have committed suicide if she had not had the sole responsibility for my life. Lastly because my uncle Sarat Bose kept hoping that my father had not been killed in the plane crash raised her hopes in that direction. After all he had been known for mysterious disappearance before. And this had not been the first report on his death either."

***KalimNews: Anita Schenkl Pfaff (born 29 November 1942 in Vienna) Pfaff is the daughter and only child of Subhas Chandra Bose (Netaji) and his wife, Emilie Schenkl. In childhood, Anita was not given her father's last name and grew up as Anita Schenkl who is a German economist, former professor at the University of Augsburg and politician.

She wrote a biography on her father titled "Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose and Germany". The book is a collection of the records collected by Professor Anita Pfaff as well as other known biographers and writers. It depicts interesting facts about the life of Bose and his contribution to the freedom struggle of India. Its first copy was given to the President of India Pranab Mukherjee at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 6 February 2013. The book was brought out by the Federation of Indo-German Societies in India.

Anita is married to Professor Martin Pfaff, formerly a German Social Democratic Party member of the Bundestag, the German parliament. They have three children: Peter Arun, Thomas Krishna and Maya Carina.

Anita B. Pfaff during an interview with a reporter told that she was only four weeks old when she saw Netaji last. She was born in 1942 and Subhas Chandra Bose left Germany by submarine for Southeast Asia in early 1943. 

In 1934 when Netaji was in Vienna to seek medical treatment (he had been in jail in Mandalay, Burma, because of his struggle for India's independence). He was sick and getting quite weak and was released on condition that he would leave the country to get medical treatment. 

Vienna at that time was quite a famous centre for medicine. So he came there during the period when he had his treatment. At the same time he was working on a book. He looked for a secretary to type his manuscripts and approached an Indian student to ask if he knew a lady who might do this for him. The student was running a discussion course in which Emilie was a member. So he recommended her and this is how they met.