DECLASSIFICATION & COMPILATION OF WAR/OPERATIONS HISTORIES

DECLASSIFICATION & COMPILATION OF WAR/OPERATIONS HISTORIES

Subject : Governance

Context : Raksha Mantri Rajnath Singh has approved the policy on archiving, declassification and compilation/publication of war/operations histories by the Ministry of Defence.

Concept :

• Each organisation under the Ministry of Defence will transfer the records, including war diaries to the History Division of Ministry of Defence (MoD) for proper upkeep, archival and writing the histories.
• 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 headed by Joint Secretary, MoD and comprising of representatives of the Services, MEA, MHA and other organisations and prominent military historians (if required) should be constituted for compilation of war/ operations histories.

War/operations histories to be compiled within 5 years

• 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.