The Brookes-Bhagat Report is, in fact, a scathing indictment of the then prime minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, and his then defence minister, V.K. Krishna Menon, for a poorly strategised “forward policy” towards Tibet and interference in the Indian army’s operational affairs. The report is raw in its verbal expression. It minces no words in criticising then army chief, General P.N. Thapar, his then newly-created Tezpur Corps commander, B.M. Kaul, the then director, Military Operations, D.K. Palit, and a host of other army officers in the conduct of war operations. Laced with quotes from victorious generals from the west and quotes from leading war strategists, it is also harsh on then director, Intelligence Bureau, B.N. Mullick.

It is not for scoring points in a Parliament debate that this report must be made public, but for the Indian establishment to overcome its defensive mindset towards China which remains to this day. It is nobody’s case that India should start flexing its muscles on the Line of Actual Control or be bitter about the past. Simply put, India’s management of its relations with China should be firmly rooted on ground reality and not on illusions of Hindi-Chini bhai-bhai. But the facts are to the contrary. The Chinese ambassador to India, Sun Yuxi, recently patted the Indian government for sending written instructions to its Cabinet ministers not to attend any function of the Dalai Lama. While he has openly said that Tawang and Arunachal Pradesh are coveted by China, his consul-general in Mumbai took on the senior-most minister in the government last year over the latter’s interpretation of the 1962 war.

... contd.