Hindustan
Times: New Delhi: Monday, October 22, 2012.
India
presented contradictory maps on the MacMohan Line to China in the fifties and
in 1960-61, which ultimately led to the war with China in 1962. This revelation
was made by Wajahat Habibullah, former chief information commissioner (CIC),
perhaps the only civilian besides defence secretaries to have officially
accessed the top secret Henderson Brookes-Bhagat report.
"We had
given maps with serious contradictions on the layout of the MacMohan Line to
China. This led the Chinese to believe that one of the pickets being controlled
by our forces in the Northeast was theirs-according to one of the maps given to
them by us," said Habibullah, declining to name the picket along the
Arunachal Pradesh border with China.
Accordingly,
on October 20, 1962, the Chinese army crossed over to occupy the border picket,
leading to open hostilities.
The
890-km-long MacMohan Line, laid down by the British in 1914, demarcates the
border between Indian and China - although this is still contested by the
latter.
Lieutenant
general Henderson Brooks and brigadier Prem Bhagat compiled the Henderson
Brooks-Bhagat report in 28 volumes in 1963, outlining the reasons for the
defeat at the hands of the Chinese in 1962.
Stating that
he still believes the report should not be declassified, Habibullah said:
"From 1962, the deployment of our armed forces has not substantially
changed in these areas. So, declassifying will lead to supplying the Chinese
with defence information."
"Moreover
the report on the role of the Indian army is so scathing that it would have a
demoralising effect on the forces even now," said Habibullah.
There are
only two copies of the report in existence-one with the defence secretary and
the other with Chinese top officials.
Habibullah
got the go-ahead to access to the report after journalist Kuldip Nayar's appeal
under the RTI Act in 2005 to get a copy of the report.
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