New Delhi: In a major step, the Union Defence Ministry has given the green signal to the policy of collection, compilation, publication and publicity of the history of wars and operations. Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Saturday approved the policy. Under this policy, every organization of the Ministry of Defence such as army, integrated defence staff, Asaf Rifles and Indian Coast Guard war diaries, letters of action, record books of operations and all other records will be sent to the History Department of the Ministry of Defence so that they can be compiled and stored and used for history writing.

As per the policy, the responsibility of making the records public will rest with the concerned organization under the Public Records Act, 1993 and the Public Records Rule, 1997. According to the new policy, records should normally be made public in 25 years. Records older than twenty-five years should be sent to the National Archives after compiling the history of wars and operations and informing experts. The department of history will be responsible for coordinating the compilation, clearance and publication of wars and operations.

The policy provides for setting up of a committee headed by joint secretary, Ministry of Defence which will include representatives of the Forces, Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Home Affairs as well as other organizations and eminent military historians, who will compile history if required. The Committee has to be constituted within two years of the war and it has to compile the records within three years and send it to the parties involved.

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