Forty five years ago to the day, the Zhou Enlai government offered the Indian charge d’ affairs in Beijing, P.K. Bannerjee, a humiliating ceasefire to end the month-long 1962 conflict across the 4,000 kilometre-long, mountainous border. Although the war officially ended two days later, the psychological scars it caused still remain rooted in the Indian mindset. Symbolic of this manifestation is the Henderson Brookes-P.S. Bhagat Report on the operational aspects of the 1962 conflagration, which lies buried in the vaults of South Block since it was submitted to the Nehru government in May 1963.

Prepared between December 1962 and May 1963, only one copy of this three-volume report exists today and the authors, as well as all the major players except the then director, Military Operations, D.K. Palit, have passed away. Yet successive governments at the Centre have adopted a “let the past bury its dead” attitude — the BJP-led NDA included. There has been no attempt to make public this three-volume report (one dealing with operations, the other two, with maps/annexures) in its fading yellow binding.

As if the Report symbolises the shame of the nation, it has been tucked away in a series of lockers inside the defence secretary’s office, and can only be accessed through a series of keys and not-so-forthcoming permission. Even though the paper of this typed report is yellow and brittle with age, there has been no attempt to either keep a photocopy of it or make it public. Perhaps the political rulers and the military establishment want this report to self-destruct or simply fade out of the public mind. But it is crucial for India that its contents be made public. It could lead to a much-needed collective catharsis over the 1962 defeat. It is time the public knew exactly what happened when political leaders played Napolean with pliant generals as their subservient sidekicks.

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