Report on 1962 India-China War not to be declassified: India Govt

New Delhi, May 10 (PTI) The 50-year-old Henderson Brooks Report on the analysis of the 1962 Sino-Indian War operations has not been made public as its contents are not only "extremely sensitive" but also are of current "operation value", the Indian government said today. Terming the report which is on the analysis of the Operations Review of the 1962 war with China as "TOP SECRET", India's Minister of State for External Affairs E Ahmed said government has "not declassified it since it is ... based on an internal study of the Indian Army, contents of which are not only extremely sensitive but are of current operation value." Ahmed was replying to a written question in Rajya Sabha, upper house of India's Parliament, on when the report will be declassified. Normally, government documents are supposed to be declassified after 30 years. The Henderson Brooks Report is the report of an analysis (Operations Review) of the Sino-Indian War of 1962 by two officers of the Indian Army, Lt Gen Henderson Brooks and Brig P S Bhagat. Significantly, the Central Information Commission also in a ‘decision notice’ dated March 19, 2010, had agreed that "no part of the report might at this stage be disclosed". "We have examined the report specifically in terms of its bearing on present national security .... The disclosure of information of which the Henderson Brooks report carries considerable detail on what precipitated the war of 1962 between India and China will seriously compromise both security and the relationship between India & China, thus having a bearing both on internal and external security. "We have examined the report from the point of view of severability u/s 10(1). For reasons that we consider unwise to discuss in this Decision Notice, this Division Bench agrees that no part of the report might at this stage be disclosed," it had said. PTI