President Pranab Mukherjee sat inside the car in which Subhas Chandra Bose made his great escape 75 years ago.
Mukherjee paused for a moment before hopping into the Wanderer car made in Germany in 1937. In the driver’s seat was Netaji’s grand nephew, TMC MP Sugata Bose.
A beaming president said, “It’s really historic moment for me...”
Sugata Bose said the car has been given a makeover by the car maker Audi recently and it could run on the streets of Kolkata. However, the car is the property of Netaji Research Bureau.
According to the bureau, Audi retained the look of the car of 1941, the year Netaji disappeared.
After Netaji's escape, the car was handed over to Netaji’s close associate and nephew Sisir Bose—father of Sugata Bose. He used it till 1958 before finally giving it to the research bureau. Interestingly, Sisir Bose had accompanied Netaji in the car during escape in 1941 and saw him off at a railway station in Jharkhand (then Bihar).
Sugata Bose, who is the chairman of Netaji Research Bureau, had decided to restore the car and asked Audi to do that.
“Finally it has been restored and I invited President to inaugurate the restored car,” Bose said.
