Henderson Brooks report on India - China 1962 war may be declassified by defence minister: Subramanian Swamy

NEW DELHI: The Henderson Brooks Report on the 1962 India-China war will be declassified "soon" by the government, BJP leader Subramanian Swamy said after meeting Defence Minister Manohar Parrikar here.

During Swamy's meeting with the minister, the Indian strategic perspective and the necessary weapons acquisition to meet national security threats were also discussed, said a statement here.

"Parrikar told Swamy that the Henderson Brooks report on the 1962 Indo-China conflict will, with a little editing, be declassified soon," it said.

The government had last year ruled out the release of the report, saying its disclosure would not be in national interest.

"(The Henderson Brooks report) is a top secret document and has not been declassified so far. Further, release of this report, fully or partially, or disclosure of any information to this report would not be in national interest," the then Defence Minister Arun Jaitley had said in July in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.

The report, authored by the then Lt General Henderson Brooks and Brigadier PS Bhagat, was commissioned by the Indian Army following its humiliating defeat at the hands of China.

During campaigning for Lok Sabha elections, BJP had seized upon the report to slam the ruling Congress and demanded its release.

Excerpts of the military investigation that were leaked in March by an Australian journalist, who wrote a book on the war, said the government's policy of forward deployment in the high mountains had increased the chances of conflict.

BJP had then justified the demand for release of the report on the grounds that the country would know how the government pushed the military into a war it could only lose.

Parrikar also assured Swamy that the 'One Rank, One Pension' scheme to fulfil BJP's 2014 poll campaign promise would be announced during the current session of Parliament, the statement further added.

Swamy's meeting with Parrikar comes days after he raised concerns over the Rafale deal with France. He had publicly asked Prime Minister Narendra Modi not to ink the Rafale deal, saying there were shortcomings in the fighter aircraft.