Nirad`s hand in Sarat`s arrest, is a `fib`: Author`s son

The claim by some of Netaji`s descendants that Nirad C Chaudhuri had a role in the arrest of Sarat Chandra Bose has been rubbished by Dhruva N Chaudhuri.

Faridabad (UP): The latest claim by some of Netaji`s descendants that renowned writer Nirad C Chaudhuri had a role in the arrest of Sarat Chandra Bose, Subhas Chandra Bose`s elder brother, has been rubbished by the author`s son Dhruva N Chaudhuri.

Commenting on the recent claims of Chandra Kumar Bose and his sister Madhuri Bose, the siblings of Sarat Bose`s son Amiya Nath Bose, that Nirad had associations with the British intelligence in the run-up to Sarat`s arrest on December 11, 1941, Chaudhuri told a news agency that "I don`t know why this issue has been raked up. I have a feeling and it is my conjecture that they did it against the running of Netaji Research Bureau in Kolkata and to get political mileage as a grand-nephew of Netaji, since Chandra Bose is a member of Forward Bloc. This is purely to get political mileage". Contesting Chandra Bose`s statement that the CBI has a file on Nirad C Chaudhuri, DN Chaudhuri asks, "How does he know that there is a file on my father with the CBI? Does he have any proof? Everything he says is based on hearsay.” "There may be file, my father was an ardent nationalist and Gandhian and the British used to have files on everybody who had such inclinations and probably it came to light when he was being confirmed with the All India Radio (AIR). But, without seeing it, how can anyone bring such allegations?" "There is no harm in bringing the facts out. But saying that my father was passing on information about Sarat Bose to the British, that he was traitor, that he had quit his job as Sarat Bose`s secretary a day before Bose`s arrest on December 11, 1941, are personal attacks. He (Chandra Bose) has to withdraw his words. Whatever my father did are all well documented in his own books as well as his memoirs". Chaudhary said Nirad C Chaudhuri used to broadcast from AIR since early 1937 and when he was appointed as secretary to Sarat Bose, his father had asked Sarat if he had any problem with that. Sarat Bose had no issues, he said. During the war years, Nirad used to broadcast pro-British commentaries from AIR-Calcutta. Complaints poured in to Sarat and Subhas Bose about him and his role as Sarat`s personal secretary. But the Bose brothers had said that those were his own views and had no connection with their work. Chaudhary said Nirad continued with his job with Sarat and that Subhas Bose had anything against my father is an "absolute fib". "Netaji had himself forwarded a signed note to him by his first name on January 16, 1941. If Netaji had hated father and never believed him, why was he corresponding with him and entrusting him with sensitive documents?" he said. "Bose brothers had nothing against my father. They knew my father`s weakness of the British. But they were fully sure about his loyalty to them," said Chaudhuri. Citing his father`s writing from `Thy Hand, Great Anarch!` the 1987 autobiographical sequel of Nirad C Chaudhuri`s `The Autobiography of an Unknown Indian`, Chauduri says Nirad continued to work for Sarat even after his arrest and it was only when Sarat`s wife Bibhabati Bose told him that his salary could not be paid that he joined the AIR only on March 19, 1942 and not a day before Sarat`s arrest as has been claimed. PTI