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Political Notes

	February 07, 2005

Netaji case : Taiwan denies plane crash report



The Justice Mukherjee Commission of Enquiry probing the alleged disappearance of Netaji Subhash Chander Bose has accepted as evidence the Taiwan Government’s communication denying reports of Netaji’s death in a plane crash at Taipei airport. The judge said the commission had received an e-mail from the Taiwan Home Ministry earlier which stated : “After reviewing all records during the period from August 14, 1945 to October 25, 1945, there is no evidence which shows that one plane had ever crashed at old Matsuyama Airport (now Taipei Airport) carrying Netaji.”



Referring to the other e-mail sent by the Mayor of Taipei, Justice Mukherjee said it mentioned about “crash of one USC-47 transporter carrying 26 former US POWs released from the camps in Philippines during the period.

A retired Pakistan Army Brigadier has claimed that he saw Netaji burnt alive, after a plane carrying them crashed over China. The “extra-ordinary eyewitness account” of Brigadier Habib-ur-Rehman was written in detail by Pakistan Cricket Board Chief Shaharyar Khan in his new book “Cricket : A Bridge of Peace.” He said he had been a member of the INA and had accompanied Netaji on the journey from Saigon to Tokyo in 1945. The plane was lying over Northern Taiwan when it crashed. Brig. Habib saw Bose’s charred body. He had seemingly died because his suit had caught fire, Khan wrote in his book. In Kolkata, Forward Bloc state secretary Ashok Ghosh told newspersons that this is no new theory.



Weapons grade uranium recovered in Bareilly

Two persons, earlier suspected to be drug peddlers, have been detained after recovery of 254 grams of weapons grade uranium from them near Bareilly. A national newspaper has reported that the incident happened on December 8 last year. The two persons, Kurshid and Aslam, were carrying the uranium in thick taped plates in a lead-lined metal box. After policemen sent the metal to Bhabha Atomic Research Centre in Mumbai for examination, it was found that the gray metal was 99 per cent uranium by weight. The Central and State investigating agencies have launched a probe to get to the bottom of the mystery, how did the two persons get hold of the weapons grade uranium which is processed only by state-owned sophisticated facilities. A possibility of uranium having come from the Narora atomic facility in Bulandshahar is not ruled out.



Experts say natural uranium contains only 0.7 per cent uranium 235 (the isotope essential for nuclear weapons). To convert it into a form that can be used for nuclear weapons, the U-235 level must be enriched to about 90 per cent.



The amount of highly enriched uranium (HEU) needed to make a nuclear weapon varies with the degree of enrichment and the sophistication of the weapon. The higher the enrichment level, the less the amount of uranium required to make a bomb. What Kurshid and Aslam were carrying was 99 per cent enriched uranium.



Jayalalithaa seeks annulment of Lok Sabha elections in Tamil Nadu

The All India Anna-DMK, the ruling party in Tamil Nadu has decided to move the Supreme Court, seeking to declare last year’s Lok Sabha elections in the state null and void after the Election Commission found a “big fraud in the preparation of electoral rolls.” Chief Minister Jayalalithaa, speaking in the State Assembly, said “it has now come to light that a massive fraud took place during the last Lok Sabha elections, confirming my worst fears and proving my allegations that there was large-scale addition of the names of supporters of the Opposition and deletion of names of our supporters during electoral process. We have decided to fight it in the Supreme Court.” On the basis of a detailed report submitted by the Kerala Chief Electoral Officer, P.J. Thomas, the Election Commission announced the revision of electoral rolls in Tamil Nadu, Jayalalithaa pointed out. “So, the Opposition’s victory in the Lok Sabha polls was not genuine and the AIADMK defeat was not real,” she said.



Andhra Naxalites

The Naxalites in Andhra Pradesh have charged the state police with surrounding

their top leaders and coming close to killing them. The special anti-Naxalite Grey Hound commandos of the state police are said to have surrounded the top Naxalite leadership from across the country in Prakasam district. Reports say that there were frantic telephone calls by the intermediaries to senior ministers in Hyderabad and New Delhi before the virtual siege was lifted.

The episode has left both the Naxalites and the security forces seething and it could further harm the already floundering peace talks. The Naxalites are alleging that the sole purpose behind the Grey Hound ambush was to liquidate their entire leadership. Ramakrishna, for example, had emerged from the forests for the first time in three decades last year to take part in the now-rocky peace talks.

Senior Home Ministry officials in New Delhi confirmed that the Naxal leadership had been allowed to go. Senior Home Ministry officials said : “Even though talks have been interrupted, back channels of communication are still open. Under such circumstances, apprehending the Naxal leaders might not have sent the right signals.”

Officials also said that the state has been asked to continue engaging the Naxals. “We hope that this gesture will help the Naxals back to the table”, they said.



Mulayam-UP Governor differences continue

Uttar Pradesh Governor T.V. Rajeshwar has refused to issue an ordinance to amend the Uttar Pradesh University Act recommended by the Mulayam Singh Yadav Government. The Cabinet had approved the draft of the Ordinance to be signed by the Governor under Article 213 of the Constitution. Almost at the same time, the Government had asked him to convene both Houses of the Legislature for the Budget session. After withholding his assent for a few days, the Governor sent back the Ordinance saying that its promulgation when the legislature had been summoned to meet, amounted to breach of propriety.

Observers say the relationship between the Governor and the Government ever since he became the resident of the Raj Bhavan last year after the formation of the Congress-led Government at the Centre, has not been a happy one. Rajeshwar took over following the removal of Vishnukant Shastri. There has been a prolonged tussle between the two over the formation of the Mohammed Ali Jauhar University at Rampur. Chief Minister Mulayam Singh had publicly alleged that the Governor was stalling the formation of the university as part of a “conspiracy.”