Rajnath Singh approves policy on archiving, declassification of war histories

As per the policy, records should ordinarily be declassified in 25 years. Also, records older than 25 years should be transferred to the National Archives of India once the war and operations histories have been compiled.

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New Delhi: Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday (June 12, 2021) approved the policy on archiving and declassification of war and operations histories. 

As per the policy, records should ordinarily be declassified in 25 years and records older than 25 years should be appraised by archival experts and transferred to the National Archives of India once the war and operations histories have been compiled. 

According to the Ministry of Defence, the policy envisages that each organisation under the Ministry of Defence such as Services, Integrated Defence Staff, Assam Rifles and Indian Coast Guard, will transfer the records, including war diaries, letters of proceedings & operational record books, etc, to the History Division of Ministry of Defence (MoD) for proper upkeep, archival and writing the histories.

"The History Division will be responsible for coordination with various departments while compiling, seeking approval and publishing of war/operations histories," the Ministry of Defence said in a statement. 

It also stated that the policy mandates constitution of a committee headed by Joint Secretary, MoD and comprising of representatives of the Services, MEA, MHA and other organisations and prominent military historians (if required), for compilation of war and operations histories.

"The policy also set clear timelines with regard to compilation and publication of war/operations histories. The above-mentioned Committee should be formed within two years of completion of war/operations. Thereafter, collection of records and compilation should be completed in three years and disseminated to all concerned," the official statement further added.

The Ministry of Defence informed that the requirement of having war histories written with a clear cut policy on declassification of war records was recommended by Kargil Review Committee headed by K Subrahmanyam as well as NN Vohra Committee in order to analyse lessons learnt and prevent future mistakes. 

"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 MoD said.