When
Chandra Kumar Bose, Subhas Chandra Bose's grandnephew, handed Netaji's personal cap to Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 23, 2019 -- on the occasion of Netaji's 122nd birth anniversary (born January 23, 1897), which is also celebrated as 'day of valour' in his remembrance, it was placed with ceremony inside a glass display case at the newly inaugurated Subhas Chandra Bose Museum at Red Fort, part of the Kranti Mandir complex.
The museum, which Modi himself inaugurated that day, was built to honour India's freedom fighters, with Netaji's artefacts prominently featured at the entrance.
But today, that glass box in which Netaji's cap was kept ceremonially in 2019 stands empty, according to Chandra Kumar Bose.
Chandra Kumar Bose says officials at the culture ministry, which maintains jurisdiction over the Subhas Chandra Bose Museum at the Red Fort in New Delhi maintain that the cap has been 'in transit' since a 2022 exhibition at the Victoria Memorial in Kolkata where it was brought to celebrate Netaji's 125th birth anniversary -- and nobody in the Union ministry of culture or the Archaeological Survey of India can say where it is today.
To bring it to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's notice, Chandra Kumar Bose posted a message on a social media platform on the evening of March 12.
Chandra Kumar Bose speaks to Prasanna D Zore/Rediff.
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