Centre may make classified war records public

Faced with intense public pressure, the Centre might soon make public the classified war records pertaining to the 1962 Sino-Indian war and the Indo-Pak conflicts in 1965 and 1971.

"A committee to review the publication of war histories, constituted by the Government, has given its recommendations," Defence Minister A K Antony said in Lok Sabha on Monday.

In a written reply, the minister said, "The recommendations of the committee are being considered for arriving at a final decision on the issue."

Though the Centre has come out with an official history of the 1948 Indo-Pak war, it is yet to make public the classified records of the 1962 war with China and the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak conflicts.

If the Centre takes a positive decision, then it would be for the first time that the Henderson Brook report, which went into the Army's debacle, would be thrown open to public scrutiny.

Recently, former Army chief general J J Singh, before laying down office, had suggested that histories of the conflict with China and Indo-Pak wars should be made available to military strategists and other stakeholders to draw the right lessons from them.