Was/is Gumnami Baba Netaji? If so, then an entire Pandora's Box will be opened. History will have to be rewritten. Marriage will fly through open casement and progeny proven a myth. The parties to perpetration of the terrible crimes against Netaji and the nation will be held culpable in a manner unimaginable and India will look afresh at life and the world.
But was Gumnami Baba, alias Bhagawanji, in truth Netaji living incognito in Lucknow, Neemsar, Basti, Ayodhya and Faizabad? Could he have been an Intelligence Bureau implant to divert people's attention from Netaji's speculated execution in erstwhile Soviet Russia as Maj Gen Gagandeep Bakshi has often averred?
What is the truth about this extraordinary monk who was seemingly a larger than life figure despite his anonymity and incognito existence, his erudition and penetrative understanding of international relations baffling common conceptions and his censure of Nehru having been betrayer to the nation's cause in acceptance of the Transfer of Power terms binding the emergent India by way of independence from the British Raj a pointer to his pronounced perception of politics pertaining to the international plane?
Who was he, this nameless monk, this wandering pilgrim across the face of the earth, this over-secretive sadhu who the then Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, Sampurnanand, came to meet and afforded supplies, whose devotees were top-ranking INA officials and front-ranking revolutionaries like Leela Roy and Maharaj Trailokyanath? Who was he who bound his devotees to the oath of top secrecy and allegiance to some unknown cause? Who was he and why was he living under such cover that he allowed no photograph ever to be clicked of him, that he allowed only a handful, a select few, to ever see his face while relegating the rest to interviewing him from behind a curtain that separated the monk from the man?
Who was he and whither did he vanish on 16 September, 1985 at 21:45 hours after darkening his room for the previous quarter hour? Or, did he die then and was cremated at Guptar Ghat, Ayodhya, on 18 September, 1985, an event witnessed by only 13 select devotees, a cremation which bears no documentary evidence and a death preceding it that was not certified by a qualified doctor? What had happened then and who was he? Where did Gumnami Baba go? Was/is he Netaji?
Written by Sugata Bose
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