‘UPA govt repeating mistakes of 1962’

Latching on to the revelations from the Henderson Brooks report about the Indian debacle in the 1962 war with China, the BJP on Tuesday accused the Congress-led UPA government of ignoring the national security issue by repeating the same mistakes.

“The investigations revealed show that it is the same old story of Congress approach towards national security and defence preparedness… government of the day did not really communicate well with the Army. They (government) did not take cognizance of their needs and therefore there was a gap not only of communication but of requirement and preparedness. Therefore, India had to suffer a humiliating defeat,” BJP spokesperson Prakash Javadekar said, charging the UPA government of ignoring national security issues.

“The government then was of Congress led by Jawaharlal Nehru. Today it is Congress government led by Manmohan Singh. Both the governments are guilty of not giving enough attention to the very important issue of national security,” he said. “Even today, the government is not giving top priority to national security and defence preparedness. BJP will give top priority to defence.”

The BJP demanded that the Henderson Brooks report be made public. “The nation still feels the pain of that humiliation. The BJP would like the entire report to be made public so that more than 50 years thereafter the nation must know as to who did what wrong,” BJP deputy leader in Rajya Sabha Ravi Shankar Prasad said. This comes in the backdrop of an Australian journalist disclosing the report’s findings.