Government will not release confidential Henderson report on 1962 Indo-China war: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Arunachal MP demanded the government to cancel the Bhagat report

by Bhupen Goswami 

Guwahati: BJP MP Tapir Gav has demanded that the Henderson-Bhagat report be shown in Parliament in the Lok Sabha, which was prepared after India’s war with China in 1962, but it was not made public. At a press conference in Guwahati today, Arunachal Pradesh MP Tapir Gao “talked about Henderson Brooks and the Brigade, in 58 years.” Singh Bhagat. . What is in this report? Some believe that this report raises many questions on the then Prime

Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.Gao said, “We Indians fought in 1962, in 1971, we fought the Kargil war. It is a tradition of the Constitution that the war reports are placed in Parliament.“ In 58 years, the Henderson Brooks and Brig. Gen. Premindra Singh Bhagat report has not been placed in the Parliament; Gao lamented, further adding, “From a military point of view and public point of view it is view it is important as thousands died in the ’62 war.”

Gao also said that the future generations will learn much from the report as it will help the Indians assess how they lost the war. “The military should also know how India lost to China. We will learn lessons”, Gao further added.

Later, Gao took to Twitter to post a snippet of his speech along with the words, “Today in Parliament during zero hour, I demanded to place the 1962 War Report of Lt Gen Henderson Brooks & Brig.Gen. Premindra Singh Bhagat in Parliament. This is very important in the Military point of view as well as the brave martyrs who laid down their lives for the nation.”

It may be recalled here that The Sino-India war began on October 20, 1962 when the People’s Liberation Army of China invaded Ladakh and Arunachal Pradesh (then known as the North East Frontier Agency) in a synchronised move. According to a report, at the end of the war the Indian army suffered the following casualties: 1,383 killed, 1,047 wounded, 1,696 missing, and 3,968 Jawans captured. The Chinese on the other hand lost 722 soldiers while 1,697 were wounded.

The Henderson Brooks-Bhagat report is said to be openly critical of the Indian political and military structure of the time as well as of the execution of operations. According to Australian journalist Neville Maxwell, the report claims that the Indian government, which was keen to recover territory, advocated a cautious policy but that the Army Headquarters dictated a policy that was militarily unsound. 58 years after the war, the report is still unclassified. Some analysts argue that the continuing public controversy over the report indicates that many of the problems identified in the report still continue.

It may be recalled here that Gao had earlier urged the Government of India to redraw the atlas, claiming that China has encroached 50 km of Arunachal Pradesh territory. MP Gao said the Survey of India which had drawn the atlas of India during the British regime had kept several areas of the strategic border state out of the country’s territory.

On the other hand, the Modi government will not make public the confidential Henderson Brooks report detailing the reasons behind India’s defeat at the hands of China in the 1962 war. Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that it is not in the national interest to release it. After a bitter defeat to China, the Indian Army formed a two-member commission headed by the then Lieutenant General Henderson Brooks.

The Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said, ‘The Henderson report is a highly confidential document. It is not in the interest of the country to make it partial or complete or any part of it public. He admitted that the government was aware of the publication in the media of some news reports claiming to have exposed portions of this report. Be aware that an Australian journalist claimed to have leaked portions of the Henderson report in March this year. In his book on the 1962 Indo-China war, the Australian journalist claimed that the then government policy of deploying troops on high mountains created a situation of fighting.