File pic: A memorial for soldiers who fought in the 1962 India-China war
The BJP today targeted the ruling Congress over a secret report that blames the Jawaharlal Nehru government and the military leadership for India's defeat in the 1962 war against China.
Excerpts of the classified report were posted online by Australian journalist Neville Maxwell on Monday. The defence ministry today said its contents are top secret as they are "extremely sensitive" and of current operational value.
"What are they trying to hide by making the war report classified?" said senior BJP leader Ravi Shankar Prasad. "We have a right to know what went wrong. We lost the war because of Nehru."
The report says the Indian forces were pushed into a war they could only lose, based on the assumption that the Chinese would not escalate hostilities. (
Read: How India bungled 1962 war with China: 10 points)
The internal investigation said in the months leading to the war, the Nehru government ordered the military to patrol and establish posts far into the disputed border as part of a "Forward Policy" that only increased the chances of conflict.
China responded immediately by setting up posts of its own, and by October 1962, the two countries were at war. It ended the next month with China holding large tracts of what India said was its territory.
"We acted on a militarily unsound basis of not relying on our own strength but rather on believed lack of reaction from the Chinese," said the report by army officers Henderson Brooks and PS Bhagat.
"To base military actions and place in jeopardy the security of troops on suppositions and beliefs put across at conference tables indicates either acceptance of the belief or a militarily unsound mind."
The NDTV story is based on the portions of the Henderson Brooks report uploaded by Mr Maxwell.
The BJP, led by its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi, has repeatedly criticised the government's "weak foreign policy" and used the 1962 war report to attack the Congress over one of its biggest icons, Jawaharlal Nehru, the great grandfather of Rahul Gandhi.