An Open Letter to Rajdeep Sardesai- On his Video Blog "Stop using Netaji to demonize Nehru"-Sept 22, 2015

Dear Rajdeep,

Over the years, I had come to respect you as one of the sanest, unbiased, & balanced journalists in the country. Your TV shows have propagated the concept of ‘content over noise’, your articles have espoused logical & impartial objectivity, while your debut book was one of the most interesting commentary on Indian politics.

My good words for you have often earned me the wrath of people in my social circle & also the digital social circle or social media. Many people have chided me for thinking that you are impartial; justifying their point of view through several instances where supposedly you have acted as a defender of the Nehru-Gandhi clan. I did not pay much heed to such arguments until couple of days ago, when you released the below video blog on September 22^nd ‘Stop pitting Nehru against Bose’. 

I realized there is no smoke without fire, & suggestions that you are an ardent blind supporter of Jawaharlal Nehru & subsequent Congress governments are not totally unfounded. I tweeted my viewpoints about your video blog expecting a reply, but you preferred to ignore me. As you nowadays have shown greater affinity for ‘open letters’, I chose to write this to you.

You mention that there is no evidence in the declassified files to suggest that Nehru had sanctioned the ‘spying’ of Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s family members by the Intelligence Bureau (IB) for close to 20 years (late 1940S to late 1960s). Please stop pretending to be naive. After 27 years of active journalism, & having interacted with ‘n’ number of politicians, bureaucrats, policemen, & senior officials from various security agencies; you should hang your head in shame for having come up with such a ridiculous argument. Are you not aware that the IB directly reports to the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India? Are you a dolt to assume that the IB will place 14 officers to spy on Amiya Nath Bose (son of Netaji’s elder brother Sarat Bose), other Bose family members & even ex-INA officials as has been revealed in the declassified files, without the consent of the Prime Minister? With this kind of logic, it won’t be surprising if you next claim that in the absence of any ‘video evidence’ which conclusively shows Osama Bin Laden in the act of planning the 'World Trade Center' attacks, it's grossly unfair to blame the poor ex-Al Qaeda leader for 9/11!

You also falsely claim that Bose’s family members have accepted that the iconic leader was perhaps killed in the Taiwan plane crash. Let me inform you that though ex-Congressmen like Krishna Bose & her son Sugata may have, most HAVE NOT! Have you not seen how the likes of Chandra Kumar Bose, Ardhendu Bose, & Surya Kumar Bose have relentlessly fought over the years for the declassification of Netaji files? Do you think that they would have refused to accept the Bharat Ratna awarded to Netaji posthumously in 1992 if they had reconciled to the prevalent theory about his death?

How are you giving a clean chit to Nehru in this case without an iota of fact? Why are you concerned that he is being vilified & ‘demonized’? If facts come out that prove Nehru was indeed a ‘demon’ so be it! If irrefutable evidence shows Nehru was involved in Bose’s disappearance, which causes the ‘national icon’ garb to be ripped apart from Nehru, so be it!

What do you mean by saying that people are trying to ‘pit’ Nehru & Bose against each other? Nehru himself pitted himself against Netaji. Are you ignorant of Nehru’s statement that he is ready to fight Bose in the event of ‘Azad Hind Fauj’ led by Netaji entering India? You mention that Nehru & Bose were mere political rivals. Have you ever heard Gandhi, Patel, Ambedkar, Azad or any other eminent Congress leader utter similar despicable statements as Nehru did? Why according to you, is it beyond the realms of possibility that PM Nehru played an active role in covering up the secret of Netaji’s life or death after 1945, which the large scale espionage certainly points towards?

It may well be possible that Nehru was not involved in this mess; but let’s not give him clean chits on the basis of, “He is Holier-than-thou Jawaharlal Nehru’-India’s 1^st Prime Minister, a God among mere mortals,” where any debate to the contrary is considered sacrilege & blasphemous. If clinching evidence prove he is indeed innocent, so be it!!

The kind of ‘hero worship’ of Nehru that you showed in your video blog is a disgrace to the impartial balanced view that a senior (without inverted commas) journalist like you should have. Nehru was just the prime minister of India, & is as much liable to public scrutiny & criticism as say a Narendra Modi is. This is the very ethos of democracy-which you keep harping upon.

And finally, if you still want to hero worship, do not look beyond your father. A much respected, humble & worthy person than the controversial Jawaharlal Nehru.