President unveils Subhas Bose's restored escape car

Seventy six years after it ferried Indian revolutionary Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose during his 'Great Escape' from India, the iconic German Sedan Wanderer car was unveiled after restoration by President Pranab Mukherjee here on Wednesday.

Mukherjee unfurled the flag on the car's bonnet during a function at the Netaji Bhawan, housing the Netaji Research Bureau, in the same Elgin Road building in south Kolkata (then Calcutta) from which Netaji had escaped on the night of January 16, 1941, while under house arrest by the British police.

The 1937-make sedan Wanderer W24, witness to the first leg of the legendary leader's Great Escape from British India to Germany, was restored to commemorate the 76th anniversary of the great feat as well as the 60th anniversary of the NRB.

The sedan, all through these years kept in a glass enclosure on the ground floor of the Netaji Bhawan, managed by the NRB -- has received a fresh lease of life, courtesy, a collaboration between the Bureau and German auto maker Audi.

West Bengal Governor Keshari Nath Tripathy and Netaji's grand nephew Sugata Bose, also a Trinamool MP, were present on the occasion.

The President also sat for some time on the car's front seat beside the driver, while Bose took his position at the wheel.

Speaking on the occasion, the President said, Netaji's name is perhaps the most emotive issue in the Indian political arena, particularly to Bengalis, even so many years after the great man's disappearance.

Netaji continues to be the centre of many controversies till date, he said.

The restoration was carried out in consultation with vintage car expert Pallab Ray and is scheduled for completion by December.

Netaji's nephew Sisir Bose had driven the revolutionary in the sedan (bearing the registration number BLA 7169) through the streets of Kolkata to Gomoh (now in Jharkhand) hoodwinking British intelligence. He reached Germany via the Khyber Pass, Kabul and Moscow.

In a note of admiration for Sisir Bose, also the NRB founder, the President referred to his role in the historic incident which triggered a series of consequential events and also led to his imprisonment for three to four years at various places from Lahore to Kolkata.

--IANS

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