Syed Muztaba Ali was a famous Bengali writer who lived in close contact with Rabindranath Tagore in Shantiniketan for a long time. A great scholar, he was above all narrowness and was a master of Sanskrit literature, esp. Upanishads. He stayed in Europe, esp. Germany for a long time. Here is a small piece that he wrote on Netaji, that reflects his whole hearted appreciation of Subhas Chandra Bose -
"In these days of sorrow, Subhas Chandra is being remembered. Ten or twelve years back while writing about him I said, in the midst of the Second World War, three persons had chosen exile from their Nation and was willing to take help of the enemies of the Anglo American forces for freeing their Nations - first among them was Grand Mufti of Jerusalem, and the second one was Abdur Rashid of Iraq. The third person was Netaji, who was not the biggest leader of India. All three were without any money, all of them carried with them their own fame and character. The first two had their own kinsmen in North Africa, yet those two could not organize an army and fight in Tunisia or Algeria. When Rommel went for his victory march in North Africa, he did not even think of taking either of the two. Neither of the first two could influence the German leadership and their career ended like other refugees, using Italian radio for carrying out propaganda in Arabian. But compare and contrast with Netaji - what a miracle he performed. He established an independent state, organized the Azad Hind Army and attacked British India. The Indians of Burma and Malaya gave their everything to him, there was a clamour to give life at the altar of the Nation, in response to his clarion call.
We know that Japan wanted Subhas Chandra and his army to fight under the Japanese flag. Hitler's Germany did not even give that opportunity to Grand Mufti or Rashid. Subhas Chandra thundered, "I am the leader of an independent state and army. Although my Government is in exile, that is an independent and sovereign Government. If you want you can earn the good fortune of extending your support to that Nation. If you want you can help that Nation by giving arms and ammunition, just as a friendly allied Nation would extend its help and support to another. But I do not want any alms and my army will not acknowledge the sovereignty of any other Nation other than Azad Hind Government. " "