Rajnath approves policy on archiving to provide people authentic account
The Government on Saturday gave the nod for declassification of war or military operations’ histories to provide people an authentic account. However, it has the discretionary powers to withhold any information considered sensitive.
It means, some major events like the India-China war in 1962 chronicled in the Henderson Brooks report will not be made public as of now and will remain classified, sources said here.
Moreover, the new policy for declassification before the 25 years cap will be for internal consumption first and later a committee may decide to publicly release whole or parts of it, considering the sensitivity of the subject, officials said.
The requirement of having war histories written with clear cut policy on declassification of war records was recommended by the Kargil Review Committee, headed by K Subrahmanyam, as well as NN Vohra Committee in order to analyse lessons learnt and prevent future mistakes.
Giving details, officials said Defence Minister Rajnath Singh approved the policy on archiving, declassification and compilation of histories of wars and operations by his Ministry.
The objective behind this move was that timely publication of war histories will give people an accurate account of the events, provide authentic material for academic research and counter the unfounded rumours, the Ministry said.
According to the policy, each organisation under the Defence Ministry such as tri-services, Integrated Defence Staff, Assam Rifles and Indian Coast Guard, will transfer the records, including war diaries, letters of proceedings and operational record books, to the History Division of the Ministry for proper upkeep, archival and writing of histories.
“The responsibility for declassification of records rests with the respective organisations as specified in the Public Record Act 1993 and the Public Record Rules 1997,” the Ministry statement on the policy said.
According to it, records should ordinarily be declassified in 25 years. Records older than 25 years should be appraised by archival experts and transferred to the National Archives of India once the war and or operations histories have been compiled,” it stated.
The History Division will be responsible for coordination with various departments while compiling, seeking approval and publishing of histories of wars and operations, it mentioned.
The policy mandates constitution of a committee headed by Joint Secretary, Defence Ministry and comprising of representatives of the tri-services, Ministry of External Affairs, Ministry of Home Affairs and other organisations besides prominent military historians (if required), for compilation of war and operations histories.
The policy also set clear timelines with regard to compilation and publication of histories of wars and operations. The committee should be formed within two years of completion of war and or operations. Thereafter, collection of records and compilation should be completed in three years and disseminated to all concerned, the Ministry said.