New Delhi: A confidential report on how the Indian government and military slipshod the war with China in 1962 cannot be made public without the permission of the Army, claim sources in the Defence Ministry.
Defence Minister Arun Jaitley on Tuesday ruled out release of the classified Henderson Brooks Report on the 1962 India-China war that is said to be openly critical of the Indian political and military structure of the time, saying its disclosure would not be in national interest.
"This (the Henderson Brooks report) is a top secret document and has not been declassified so far. "Further, release of this report, fully or partially or disclosure of any information to this report would not be in national interest," Jaitley said in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.
Earlier, in May, before the general elections, the BJP had demanded the UPA-2 led by former PM Manmohan Singh to release the report by former army Lieutenant General Henderson Brooks.
Sources, say that BJP had claimed that it was important for the country to know how the government at the time pushed the military into war even when it was sure of defeat.
Jawaharlal Nehru was India’s Prime Minister when India lost the 1962 war to China.
The report authored by the then Lt General Henderson Brooks and Brigadier P S Bhagat was commissioned by the Indian Army following its humiliating defeat at the hands of the Chinese.
Earlier in the year, an Australian journalist Neville Maxwell
Excerpts of the military investigation that were leaked in March by Australian journalist Neville Maxwell who wrote an acclaimed book on the war said the government's policy of forward deployment in the high mountains had increased the chances of conflict.
