Few figures in India’s freedom struggle evoke as much passion as Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. Officially, it is said that he died in a plane crash in Taiwan on 18 August 1945. Yet, for decades, doubts have lingered, investigations have contradicted one another, and researchers like Anuj Dhar and Chandrachur Ghose have brought forward compelling evidence suggesting Bose may have lived on. That the news of the plane crash was a smokescreen of lies was known to key people in the Government. That is the unadulterated truth. If that is true, then the bigger mystery is not just about Bose’s fate — it is about why successive Indian governments, both past and present, remain reluctant to reveal the full truth.