War Archives, Declassified War Histories To Be Public Soon: Defence Ministry

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.

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh today approved the policy on archiving, declassification and compilation of histories of wars and operations by the Ministry of Defence (MoD). "Timely publication of war histories would give people accurate account of the events, provide authentic material for academic research and counter the unfounded rumours," the Defence Ministry statement noted. According to the policy, each organisation under the Ministry of Defence 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 Defence 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 Defence Ministry statement noted.