Sir — Jawaharlal Nehru’s Congress Government brought the country unprecedented humiliation due to its disastrous and flawed ‘Forward Policy’ vis-à-vis China in the 1962 war.
The worst military defeat in the annals of our defence forces emotionally shattered Nehru, sadly hastening his end within two years of the tragedy. Yet, his successors and family members, ending with the present leadership in the party, refuse to share the top-secret report submitted by lt General Henderson Brooks and his colleague Brigadier PS Bhagat on the 1962 catastrophe, with the Indian people, even though portions of the report have just been put on the Internet by Neville Maxwell, the 88-year-old British journalist.
Indian citizens of that generation, including me, vividly remember the terrible mess that Nehru’s favourite Defence Minister Krishna Menon, and the newly-appointed commander, lt Gen BM Kaul, made of our defence policy and preparedness. The result was the utter neglect and ill-preparedness of the Armed Forces to face the Chinese aggression. But our soldiers fought bravely despite the odds. As several military experts including some former Army chiefs, have reiterated, our defence forces still suffer from the same neglect and are ill-equipped to withstand any major critical situation.