The reason for keeping secret the Henderson Brooks-Bhagat report may lie in the debacle that 1962 war is remembered for. But 15 years on, and despite India winning the Kargil war, the information contained in the Kargil Review Committee (KRC) report has faced no different fate. While the report has been published in the form of a book, the 22 volumes of appendices, each running into hundreds of pages and containing information such as transcripts of Musharraf?s intercepted conversations, diaries of Pakistani soldiers besides others continue to be ?classified? even as recommendations of the committee remain only partially implemented.
?The committee was supposed to submit the report in about three months. We took a little over three months. And when the report was submitted, it was thoroughly screened by some of the best security experts in the country. They screened every word and took out everything they felt may give away essential secrets. It was published as a book. But the other 22 volumes (which formed the appendices of KRC) were classified, they contain a mine of information and should be in public knowledge,? said B G Verghese, one of the members of the committee that included former VCOAS Lt Gen K K Hazari and former secretary, National Security Council Secretariat, Satish Chandra. The late K Subrahmaniam headed the committee.
The appendices to the report which is published in the form of a book titled ?From Surprise to Reckoning? contain information such as transcripts of conversations between General Parvez Musharraf, the then Chief of Army Staff of Pakistan Army, and his Chief of General Staff Lt Gen Mohammad Aziz Khan (when the former called from Beijing), diaries of Pakistani soldiers which form crucial evidence of the fact that Kargil was a planned operation of the Pakistan regular Army, newspaper clippings, interrogation reports of Pakistani POWs among others. All these remain ?secret documents?.
?(In 2001) When Gen Musharraf came for the Agra summit and spoke boastfully at great length, we had all the (counter arguments) in these appendices, which no body knew. They (the appendices) are of great informative value?every time when Kashmir issue comes up, the arguments to Pakistani claims lie in those appendices; but irrespective of the political party governing the Centre, no one is bothered to open those documents. Why should Musharraf tapes, newspapers clipping be classified. This is what officers should be studying in staff college, isn?t it,? Verghese said.
Mandated to review events that led to Pakistani aggression in Kargil sector and recommend measures to safeguard the country against such armed aggressions, the KRC was set up by the Union Cabinet on July 24, 1999. Over the next six months, the committee carried out a comprehensive review of critical areas such as security management, intelligence, nuclear policy, counter terrorism, reorganisation of security structures besides others, which, according to Hazari, remain implemented in ?bits and pieces and are inadequate to meet future (security challenges)?.
