Political leadership betrayed our soldiers

More than 50 years after India's debacle in 1962 war with China the Henderson Brooks Report, kept under lock and key in the Defence Ministry's South Block office in Delhi, has been leaked. A report that looked into reasons for India's defeat has been kept away as a classified document for such a long time for reasons not difficult to speculate. Over the years many people who played important roles during those years have gone public and talked about the failure of the political leadership. This should come as no surprise. Because, why else would successive governments keep this report classified and refuse to declassify it. In 2008 when I raised the question in Parliament, the UPA government said the report could not be declassified as it was a secret document. That too, from a government that claims to have introduced transparency and "given people access" to government functioning.

All major democracies declassify documents and encourage discussion and debate on issues with the help of new insights provided by private papers of political leaders and cabinet notes. Indian governments have habitually shied away from doing so and used the garb of "national security" to keep reports that expose their failures.

The leaked portions of the Henderson Brooks report once again show how India's brave soldiers were betrayed by the political leadership. And, unfortunately little has changed since. In 1962 war the political leadership, completely cut off from reality forced our under-equipped soldiers to fight in bitter winter at great heights without clear direction. Their failure to face the reality of Chinese troops crossing the McMahon Line led hundreds of our soldiers to sacrifice their lives for what was a result of complete absence of political leadership. Our soldiers were betrayed.

Over the years our soldiers continue to face political apathy and bureaucratic delays. In recent months a spate of accidents in the Indian Navy have once again shown that our armed forces personnel will remain at the mercy of MOD bureaucrats who, sitting in their comfortable offices scuttle or delay requests for refits and repairs. We do not need any evidence to prove the patriotism of our brave men and women.

As a disciplined force they continue to perform their duty in trying circumstances. Declassifying the Henderson Brooks report will once again focus attention on the failure of the political leadership to stand by our soldiers while at the same time also allow us, hopefully, to learn lessons from a debacle that cast a shadow on our collective psyche.

The author is a Member of Parliament.