NEW DELHI- A large section of the still classified Henderson Brooks Report which indicts former Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and top government officials for India's defeat in the 1962-Sino Indian war has been made public.
The report on the 1962 Sino-Indian War has been uploaded on the internet by an Australian journalist Neville Maxwell. Maxwell was a war correspondent during the 1962- Sino Indian war. The report supposedly contains details of India's humiliating defeat at the hand of China.
Most parts of the Henderson Brooks report are still classified in India. Ironically, this report has been made public on day when Congress President Rahul Gandhi will be in Arunachal Pradesh to campaign ahead of the Lok Sabha elections. The report is expected to be taken up as an election issue as after more than 50 years.
The request for the report to be declassified had earlier been made by Bharatiya Janata Party president Rajnath Singh. Defence Minister AK Antony in Parliament had stated that the report could not be made public as it contains sensitive information and also because the contents of the report had current operational value.
The report on the war was submitted in 1963. Maxwell has stated that the reason for not making the report public must be "political, indeed partisan and probably even familial," he had said in an explanatory note on his website.