Netaji's daughter meets Vajpayee in Munich

[  FRIDAY, MAY 30, 2003 ]

MUNICH : Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had an unusual visitor here - Anita Bose Pfaff , the 60-year-old daughter of the legendary freedom fighter Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose.

Anita , who was hardly three months old when Netaji left Germany in February 1943 for East Asia to raise the Indian National Army (INA), called on the prime minister at Hotel Sheraton where he is staying.

The meeting took place shortly after Vajpayee had addressed a gathering of Indian and German businessmen at the hotel. She was accompanied by her husband, Martin Pfaff , a Green Party member of the Bundestag, the German parliament.

Anita , who grew up in Austria , met Pfaff, a German, while he was working in India . They have three children: Peter Arun , Thomas Krishna and Maya Carina.

Like millions of Indians, Anita is a great fan of her father and his courage that led him to form the INA to take on the British Raj.

But Anita does not believe that he is still alive.

"I think his life and his contribution to the Independence struggle are far more important than debating whether he died in the (1945) plane crash," she said in an interview published two years ago.

Original Article : http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/47939770.cms