THE ASSAM TRIBUNE ANALYSIS

DATE - 23 JANUARY 2021

For Preliminary and Mains examination

As per new Pattern of APSC

(Also useful for UPSC and other State level government examinations)

Answers of MCQs of 22-01-2021

Q1. The original language of the Chutiyas belongs to the

a) Indo-Aryan

b) Indo-Iranian

c) Tibetan

d) Tibetan-Burman

Ans: d) Tibetan-Burman

Q2. Which day is celebrated as Sati Sadhani divas to honour the sacrifices made by the Sutiya Queen.

a) March 20

b) April 21

c) May 20

d) December 21

Ans : b) April 21

Q3. “Chutiya people” are descendants of the ________family of Mongoloid origin.

a) Tai

b) Sino-Tibetans

c) Tibetan-Burmans

d) Burmans

Ans : b) Sino-Tibetans

MCQs of 23-01-2021

Q1. Who formed the Indian National Academy?

(a) Subhash Chandra Bode

(b) Mohan singh

(c) Rash Behari Bose

(d) None of these

Q2. The title of ‘Father of the Nation’ was given to the Mahatma Gandhi by……

(a) Rabindra Nath Tagore

(b) Subhash Chandra Bose

(c) Bal Gangadhar Tilak

(d) None of these

Q3. Which of the following statement is/are correct about Subhash Chandra Bose?

(i) He was born on 23 Jan. 1891

(ii) He was the founder of the Indian National Army.

(iii) His father was Janakinath Bose.

Options

(a) Only i , ii

(b) Only iii

(c) Only ii, iii

(d) None of the above

Q4. Who is known as the political guru of Subhash Chandra Bose?

(a) Chittaranjan Das

(b) Gopal Krishna Gokhle

(c) Mahatma Gandhi

(d) Vivekananda

Q5. Elaborate the role of Subhash Chandra Bose in India’s struggle for independence. (200 words)

EDITORIALS

1. Facets of Netaji’s life and times ( GS 1- Modern History)

2. Chinese designs ( GS 2- International relations)

3. Road accidents ( GS 2 – Governance)

Facets of Netaji’s life and times

The nation is celebrating the 125th birth anniversary of Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose today.

One of the brightest jewels of the freedom movement in India, many facets of Netaji’s life have come to

light recently.

He died in a plane crash in the fateful flight from Taiwan to Tokyo on August 18,1945 is still shrouded in

mystery and continues to be debated.

Therelease of 303 declassified (non-Secret) files by the National Archives of India, New Delhi during

2016 was an important landmark in this direction and quenched the public thirst for more information

on Netaji, and more particularly on his disappearance.

The first batch of 100 declassified files were released by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on January 23,

2016, and were put in the public domain on the occasion of Netaji’s 119th birth anniversary.

On the occasion the Prime Minister also inaugurated an exhibition on Netaji in the presence of the

members of Netaji’s family, which showcased the recently-acquired declassified files in the National

Archives of India, giving the public the first vital information on the life and times of Netaji which were

kept secret for many decades.

Subsequently digital copies of 203 more declassified files (in all, 303 files) relating to Netaji were

released in the public domain through the web portal in 2016, which scholars can easily access from

across the world.

These declassified files were transferred from the Prime Minister’s Office, Ministry of External Affairs,

Ministry of Home Affairs and the Cabinet Secretariat.

A substantive part of these declassified files pertains to the three specific Inquiry Commissions relating to

Netaji, viz., Shah Nawaz Committee (1956), Justice Khosla Commission (1970-74) and Justice Mukherjee

Commission (1999-2005).

The broad nature of the Netaji papers include materials such as correspondence, reports, orders,maps

and sketches, directions, Parliament questions, newspaper reports, confidential notes, etc.

The first committee headed by Shah Nawaz Khan, who was at that time a Member of Parliament as well

as a former army officer in Netaji’s Indian National Army (Azad Hind Fauj) looked into the circumstances

around Bose’s death.

The committee did conclude that Bose had died in the plane crash at Taihoku (Japanese name for Taipei)

in Formosa,now Taiwan, on August 18, 1945.

The committee stated that his ashes were kept in Japan’s Renkoji Temple and should be reinstated in

India.

However, Suresh Chandra Bose, a member of the committee,declined to sign the final report and wrote a

dissenting note elucidating his strong reservation about the cited evidence.

Suresh Chandra Bose’s dissenting note and lingering public dissatisfaction with the majority findings of

Shah Nawaz Committee led to a clamour for a fresh inquiry.

The Government of India constituted another inquiry commission on July 11,1970 headed by GD Khosla,

retired Chief Justice of Punjab High Court.

His report in 1974 not only concurred with the earlier reports on the main facts of Netaji’s death but also

evaluated the alternative explanation of Netaji’s disappearance.

The findings of the Khosla Commission did not dispel the controversy surrounding Netaji’s death and the

Government of India following a court order appointed retired Supreme Court judge NK Mukherjee to

further probe the death of Netaji in 1999.

The single man commission concluded in 2005 that though oral accounts were in favour of the plane

crash, yet those accounts could not be relied on and that there was a secret plan to ensure Netaji’s safe

passage to former USSR with the knowledge of Japanese authority and Habibur Rehman,his ADC.

The commission observed that the ashes kept in the Renkoji Temple, Tokyo, reported to be of Netaji,

were of Ichiro Okura, a Japanese soldier, who died of cardiac arrest.

The commission’s report was tabled in Parliament on May 17,2006 but then the Government rejected the

findings of the commission without assigning any reason.

These files also consisted of reports from abroad on Netaji such as a copy of a note dated November 16,

1943 by Netaji regarding the organization of the Japan Territorial Committee of the Indian Independence

League, Tokyo.

There are also interesting records on Netaji’s family such as the birth of his daughter Anita Schenkl.

In a note dated June 30, 1954 relating to Anita’s registration (born on November 29,1942), it was said

that Anita had been registered “as the child of an Indian citizen”, whose father’s name is Subhas Chandra

Bose and mother’s name, Frau Emilie Schenkl.

One of the files transferred from the PMO revealed that the then Government did not consider Netaji a

‘war criminal’.

A letter from the Ministry of External Affairs specified that the international Military Tribunal for the Far

East did not have any record to prove that he was either a war criminal or a prisoner of war.

The Netaji papers released also revealed that the freedom fighter’s family was sharply divided over the

issue to conduct DNA tests on his presumptive remains kept in the Renkoji Temple.

The DNA tests would have laid to rest the controversy over the authenticity of the remains and the

conspiracy theories on the death of Netaji.

While Netaji’s daughter Anita Pfaff did not approve of the DNA test, his elder brother’s grandson Ashish C

Ray was in favour and even proposed an international team of experts.

However, the family was keen on bringing the ashes from the Renkoji Temple in Tokyo to India.

There are also interesting documents such as the extract of the book titled Marauders are Quitting the

Game written by Yuri L Kuznets,published in 1992 in Moscow, which is an unofficial translation referring

to Subhas Bose’s activities during the year 1941 and his secret journey from Kabul to Berlin via the

former USSR with the holding of an Italian passport in the name of Mazzotta.

Another file included a note from Jawaharlal Nehru setting aside two lakh rupees in a trust for Netaji’s

daughter in 1954. A letter from Samar Guha, ex-MP to Prof Madhu Dandavate made an observation that

the then PM Morarji Desai in September 1978 declined even to accept Shah Nawaz Committee and

Khosla Commission of Inquiry reports as conclusive (which had otherwise concluded that Netaji had died

in a plane crash).

Thus, Desai reopened the issue of a fresh inquiry about Netaji’s mystery in 1978.

These 303 open category files consisting of over 40,000 pages relating to Netaji which are now in the

public domain have gone a long way in meeting the aspiration of the scholars in particular, and public in

general.

These records have certainly facilitated in throwing new lights on the life and times of one of the stalwarts

of the freedom movement in India.

There could be possibilities of more classified records relating to Netaji still confined in the archives and

records rooms of former USSR, Japan, Singapore, Germany, the USA, the UK, etc., and if the Government

of India could access these records, it would open new vistas of many an unknown fact of our modern

Indian history.

Chinese designs

Throughout last year, China had displayed unusual belligerency on its 3,488-km-long border with India,

leading to eyeball to eyeball confrontation between the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) and Indian Army

jawans, such as the one at Doklam.

Thanks to field-level officer-to-officer interaction, local skirmishes have been kept from blowing up into

full-scale conflict and an uneasy status quo has been maintained.

During the relative quietude, China has been strengthening its infrastructure behind the Line of Actual

Control and stamping its presence on the areas over which it holds sway.

One means of doing so had been to set up a chain of villages in the eastern sector in areas controlled

by it close to Arunachal Pradesh and Sikkim.

Reportedly China has already set up over two dozen such integrated villages most of which had been

constructed after the Doklam standoff.

The bizarre aspect of these constructions is that though they are integrated villages having all facilities for

inhabitation, there is no human presence so far in them.

This leads to the supposition that the villages are actually an extension of Chinese cantonments to be

occupied in the future by PLA soldiers.

It may be noted that all across the LAC, the PLA has constructed living accommodation for its members

having all facilities including ones for recreation, so the currently uninhabited villages might be a

component of this overall objective.

On the other hand, these unoccupied villages might be a stratagem to put additional pressure on India by

reminding her that Beijing still claims large chunks of India as its own territory.

For instance China claims Arunachal Pradesh to be a part of southern Tibet despite New Delhi’s consistent

stand that the State is an integral part of India.

By constructing a village on the banks of the Tsari Chu river, which lies in the area disputed between India

and China and is close to Arunachal, China appears to be trying to remind Indian authorities that its eyes

are still on this region.

Beijing has refuted India’s objections to the construction of this particular village by asserting that the

construction activities were within its own territory and its sovereign right.

But, with the trauma of the Chinese incursion into Arunachal Pradesh during the 1962 India-China war,

and the fact that PLA soldiers had pushed well inside Assam, the presence of the village has set alarm bells

ringing in the Northeast.

However, since Indian protests have always fallen on deaf ears as far as intransigent actions on the part of

China is concerned, there is little that India can do to force Beijing to reverse them.

The sole means of countering Chinese designs on the border is to continue to improve India’s own

communication and defensive infrastructure and show Beijing that she is full prepared for any

eventuality.

Road accidents

Road accidents have been the biggest killer in the State for quite some time now, as corroborated by data

on yearly accident-induced fatalities.

Shockingly, this has failed to move the government authorities into any meaningful action, with road

mishaps continuing to extract a high number of fatalities and debilitating injuries.

Indeed, the government authorities’ inaction is borne out by their various acts of omission and

commission.

Take for instance the case of road dividers in the city. Many dividers do not yet have the mandatory

reflectors and fluorescent markings so essential to avert accidents in the night.

The utter callousness of the authorities such as the PWD and Transport stands exposed by the fact that

such unmarked road dividers have triggered many fatal accidents in the city.

The authorities though remain unperturbed.

Rather than waxing eloquent on annual Road Safety Weeks celebrated with little more than ritualism, the

authorities would do well to wake up from their stupor and address at least the basic concerns vis-a-vis

road accidents.

Not just road dividers, many speed-breakers on highways across the State remain unmarked and are

known to have caused fatal mishaps.

State Transport Minister Chandra Mohan Patowary has urged the Centre to address the issue of road

black spots (accident prone areas) but has apparently fallen well short of ensuring that his department get

the basics right.

The negligence and casual approach of the authorities like Transport and Police in enforcing other road

safety norms have actually made our roads accident-prone.

Lax enforcement invariably emboldens the offenders to drive with impunity and indulge in repeated

violations.

Rash driving and driving under the influence of liquor – a common trend – is related to poor enforcement,

as the violators invariably get away with little or no punishment.

The process of issuing licences, too, is anomalous and mired in corruption which ensures that unqualified

people get to sit behind the wheels.

Data shows Assam to be having a much higher rate of accidents as well as the resultant fatalities when

compared to national average.

And it is the young people in the age group 15-44 who are bearing the brunt of fatal road mishaps in the

State.

Strong enforcement apart, it is also imperative to address other factors such as poor road conditions and

design, lack of amenities for pedestrians, and low level of road safety awareness – all of which add up to

the unprecedented spurt in mishaps.

A multi-pronged strategy taking into account the diverse aspects of accidents is a dire need.

Along with effective enforcement, sustained awareness campaigns that should also involve children are a

must.

Hard crackdowns on unqualified and negligent drivers apart, issuance of driving licences should be made

more stringent.

Mobile patrolling by police and 24x7 highway helplines are yet another imperative for ensuring safety of

commuters.