⇒Raksha Mantri, Shri Rajnath Singh has approved the policy on archiving, declassification and compilation/publication of war/operations histories by the Ministry of Defence.
Transfer of Records & Purpose:
» The policy envisages that each organisation under the Ministry of Defence will transfer the records, including war diaries, letters of proceedings & operational record books, etc, to the History Division of Ministry of Defence.
» The organisations under the Ministry of Defence such as Services, Integrated Defence Staff, Assam Rifles and Indian Coast Guard, will transfer the records, for proper upkeep, archival and writing the histories.
Responsibility & Tenure of declassification of records:
» The responsibility for declassification of records rests with the respective organisations as specified in the Public Record Act 1993 and Public Record Rules 1997.
» According to the policy, records should ordinarily be declassified in 25 years. Records older than 25 years should be appraised by archival experts and transferred to the National Archives of India once the war/operations histories have been compiled.
Committee which recommended War histories written with clear cut policy on declassification of war records:
» The requirement of having war histories written with clear cut policy on declassification of war records was recommended by Kargil Review Committee headed by K Subrahmanyam as well as N N Vohra Committee in order to analyse lessons learnt and prevent future mistakes.
Responsibility of compiling, seeking approval and publishing of war histories:
» The History Division will be responsible for coordination with various departments while compiling, seeking approval and publishing of war/operations histories.
Compilation Committee:
» 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/ 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.