'Inconceivable for him to hide': Netaji's daughter Anita Bose debunks Gumnami Baba story

Anita Bose, daughter of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose spoke to Republic TV on the renewed debate over the fate of the freedom fighter and whether he took the disguise of 'Gumnami Baba' and stayed in India, as against the common belief that he died in a plane crash in Taiwan in August 1945. She outrightly rejected the Gumnami Baba angle, calling it an "insult" to her father.

"I refuse to accept this Gumnami Baba story. It is an insult to my father. You can't go on with conspiracy stories and try to persuade people that all sorts of things might have happened because you don't like what facts are," Anita Bose said. She said the reason she thinks so is that some want to use the topic for publicity or simply insult Netaji.

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Inconceivable for Netaji to hide

When asked why she doesn't go by the Gumnami Baba story, Anita Bose replied, "The personality of Netaji is such that it is inconceivable that he returned anonymously, hiding behind this curtain and claiming that he lives in this sanyaas and is out of getting involved in this country's affairs. The other is that the story of the plane crash is a very convincing one."

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Gumnami Baba may be interested to hold possessions

Anita Bose further suggested that Gumnami Baba may well be just interested in Netaji for him to possess the freedom fighter's family photos and German WWII-era binoculars. Old photographs of Netaji's family were found among the belongings of Faizabad's Gumnami Baba, who many believe was Netaji living incognito, in 2018.

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People enjoy these conspiracy stories

Reacting to a French government report of 1947 which said that Netaji Bose didn't die in the plane crash but escaped from Indo-China (modern-day Southeast Asian countries), she drew a comparison of such "conspiracy theory" to other popular ones. "There are also some people who believe that the Apollo mission never went to the moon. People enjoy these conspiracy stories and I think it's very deplorable that a personality like Netaji is being insulted."

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Soviet Union theory is less absurd

Anita Bose said that the theory of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose having gone to the Soviet Union is "less absurd" than the Gumnami theory but the plane crash evidence is more compelling. She said the Government of India had conducted a probe to ascertain the facts and it was concluded that Netaji had died in Taiwan. "All other stories are nothing but pure speculation, including the one of Netaji being in Soviet Union."