One hundred and twenty four years ago, on January 23, was born Subhas Chandra Bose, whose death in an air crash in August 1945 remains shrouded in mystery. Netaji, as he was popularly known ,was one of the most charismatic leaders of the independence movement who, before the saga of Indian National Army, was twice the President of Indian National Congress.

Bose, who started his political career as a protege of Deshbhandu Chittaranjan Das to whom he was referred by Mahatma Gandhi in 1920, had by 1927, along with Jawaharlal Nehru, become a most popular leader of the country’s youth.

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In 1928 the Nehru Report, prepared by Motilal Nehru who headed a committee of an all- parties conference to prepare a draft for the constitution of free India, was made public. The report was presented on the assumption that the new constitution would be based on Dominion Status. This was opposed by the young radical group of the Congress headed by Jawaharlal and Subhas who formed the India Independence League propagating full independence.

However, when it came to the choice of the President of the Congress session at Calcutta (now Kolkata) Bose not only supported Motilal Nehru but went to the extent of saying nobody else would be acceptable. He wrote to the elder Nehru on 28 July 1928: “I cannot tell you how disappointed the whole of Bengal will feel if for any reason you decline the Congress Presidentship….I will not refer to any other provinces but I am almost sure when the final nomination is made whole of India will stand unanimously in your favour….The situation in the country today is such …we can think of nobody else who can rise to the occasion.. if you decline the Presidentship the effect would be so disastrous in this province that it will seriously affect the success of the Congress session.”

Similar sentiments were expressed by JM Sengupta, who though a rival of Bose in Bengal politics and considered close to the Mahatma, wrote to Motilal Nehru: “Bengal is unanimous about you because we cannot do without you.” Touched by their words, Motillal wrote back in a joint letter to Bose and Sengupta: “I am sure Mahatmaji will come to the right decision and I am perfectly willing to abide by his decision.” Gandhiji soon made the decision: Motilal Nehru was unanimously elected President of the Calcutta session.

Jawaharlal Nehru was elected the President of the next session at Lahore where, as per his and Bose’s wishes, and demand of the youth, the historic resolution for ‘complete independence’ was passed and January 26 (later Republic Day) was declared as Independence Day. The 1930-40 decade saw four great stalwarts of the Congress as Presidents of the party: Sardar Patel (Karachi, 1931), Jawaharlal Nehru (Lucknow,1936 and Faizabad, 1937), Netaji (Haripura, 1938 and Tripuri, 1939) and Maulana Azad (Ramgarh, 1940).

Of these top leaders of the Congress after Gandhi, no two were as close to each other than Nehru and Bose till the latter fell out with Gandhi in 1939 which also adversely affected his relations with Nehru. Both Nehru and Bose had their vision of India lit up by the idea of socialism. They both therefore laid strong emphasis on centralized planning, heavy industry and state ownership of key industries. The deep ideological affinity they shared also turned into a strong personal relationship between the two men.

When Kamala Nehru died in Lausanne in February 1936, Subhas, already in Europe, reached there before she breathed her last and helped Jawaharlal make the funeral arrangements. In 1935 he had written to Nehru who was in jail: “If I could be of any service to you in your present trouble, I hope you will not hesitate to send for me.” Before Kamala died the presidentship of the 1936 Congress session at Lucknow had been offered to Jawaharlal. But he was hesitant, preoccupied as he was with his wife’s illness. But within a few days of her death, Subhas wrote to him on 6 March 1936 from Austria: “Among the front-rank leaders of today, you are the only one to whom we can look up to for leading the Congress in a progressive direction. Moreover your position is unique, and I think even Mahatma Gandhi will be more accommodating towards you than towards anybody else. I earnestly hope you will fully utilise the strength of your public position.”

In April 1936, Bose returned to India from Europe where he had been permitted to go for medical treatment. But no sooner had he arrived, he was arrested and put under house arrest in Darjeeling. From there he wrote to Nehru on June 1930: “From the papers I gathered that you were overworking yourself and I was concerned about your health…I can appreciate how difficult it is for you to avoid overworking. I do hope you that you will not strain yourself too much. It will not help anyone if you have a breakdown.’ For the first time Bose ended the letter with ‘love’. This shows the attachment between the leaders was growing stronger.

After Subhas was elected President of the Congress in 1938 for its 51st session in Haripura, Nehru, after a strenuous election campaign tour of the country, left for Europe where he propagated India’s case and got the opportunity to acquaint himself with the situation that was inevitably leading to World War II.

On 19 October 1938 Bose wrote to him: “You cannot imagine how I have missed you all these months…you have been able to do such valuable work during your stay in Europe … several problems will await solution till you are back.” The newly elected Congress President who had offered Jawaharlal the chairmanship of the proposed National Planning Committee repeated the offer: “I hope you will accept the Chairmanship of the National Committee. You must if it is to be (a) success.” Jawaharlal Nehru not only accepted it but carried forward the idea in independent India by setting up a Planning Commission which made 5-year plans for the country till it was wound up in 2014 by the present government.

The relations between Nehru and Bose continued to be cordial even after the latter was re-elected the Congress President in 1939 by defeating Pattabhi Sitaramayya, the nominee of Mahatma Gandhi, in a straight contest. When differences arose between the Mahatma and Subhas on the constitution of the ‘Cabinet’ as the Congress Working Committee (CWC) was then called, the latter sought Jawaharlal’s advice and wrote to him on 15 April 1939: “Will it be possible for you to run up here for a few hours? We could then have a talk and I could have your advice as to how to proceed next?”

Jawaharlal not only travelled from Allahabad to Manbhum in Bihar to meet Bose, who was bed ridden, but also wrote to Gandhi on April 17: “I think now, as I thought in Delhi, that you should accept Subhas as President. To try and push him out seems to be an exceedingly wrong step.” But despite Jawaharlal’s best efforts, the differences between the Mahatma and Subhas could not be sorted out. It had become extremely difficult for Gandhi, in the circumstances of the time, to reject the advice of his other colleagues in the right wing, led by Patel, who were determined not to compromise with Bose. Ultimately Bose resigned from the Congress, formed his own party, the Forward Bloc, and the rest, as they say, is history.

Lest it be forgotten, Netaji named one the brigades of his Indian National Army as the Nehru Brigade. After he died in an air crash in 1945, Nehru ensured that his widow, Emilie was given life-long financial assistance by the Congress party. Her daughter, Anita Bose also received monetary aid till she got married in 1965.

With the West Bengal elections around the corner there will be attempts by vested interests to distort history and exaggerate differences between Bose and Nehru. Yes, there were differences but only after 1939, towards the fag end of Netaji’s life. The differences were restricted to views on fascism and relationship with Gandhi. Nobody could have put it better than Prof Rudrangshu Mukherjee who in the concluding part of his book Nehru & Bose-Parallel Lives writes: “Subhas believed that he and Jawaharlal could make history together. But Jawaharlal could not see his destiny without Gandhi. This was the limiting point of their relationship.”

The writer, an ex-Army officer, is a former member of the National Commission for Minorities.