NEW DELHI, Mar 18:
The Government under late Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and the then Army leadership’s “Forward Policy” has been blamed for India’s humiliating defeat in the 1962 war against China in a top secret report accessed by an Australian journalist.
The Henderson Brooks report, which still remains officially classified, has found serious faults with the “Forward Policy” and the Army for carrying it out without the necessary wherewithal, according to defence journal Indian Defence Review, which has put on its website some portions of the report first released by Journalist Neville Maxwell.
The Henderson Brooks report is an analysis (operations review) of the 1962 war done by officers of the Indian Army– Lt Gen Henderson Brooks and Brig P S Bhagat, who belonged to Indian Military Academy at the time.
The report, which was critical of the political and military structure of the time, was classified as a top secret document and the Government has rejected strong demands for its declassification even as late as last year.
Maxwell, who had reported on the war extensively, had released some contents of the Henderson Brooks report on his website.
The Defence Ministry refrained from commenting on the published reports. “Given the extremely sensitive nature of the report, which is of current operational value, it is reiterated that the Government classified it as a top secret document and , as such, it would not be appropriate to comment on the contents uploaded Neville Maxwell on the web,” a Defence Ministry release said.
The Henderson report has criticised the then Government, military and intelligence agencies for basing their assumptions on the belief that the Chinese would not escalate hostilities whereas militarily they should have thought “exactly opposite”.
The Forward Policy, which had sought the raising of military outposts in areas claimed by Chinese and launching of aggressive patrols, increased the chances of conflict, the report has said, suggesting that India was not militarily in a position to implement this.
The BJP and the Congress clashed over the contents of the report. The main opposition attacked the Congress saying it had compromised with security then and was doing the same now.
The Congress retaliated accusing the JP of playing “cheap politics” ahead of the Lou Saba polls on the issue. (PTI)
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