New Delhi: India might not declassify the Kashmir’s letters of 1947 given the concern it could impact its foreign relations, published a Guardian report.
The report said the Butcher papers – the official name of the letters – contain the debates that led Jawaharlal Nehru –India’s first PM – to announce a special status of the Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir and called for a cease-fire with Pakistan.
The Bucher papers refer to communications between Gen Sir Francis Robert Roy Bucher, who served as second commander-in-chief of the Indian army between 1948 and 1949, and government officials, including Nehru.
A recent foreign ministry document seen by the Guardian said the contents of the papers should not be declassified yet. The papers contain “military operational matters in Kashmir and correspondences amongst senior government leaders on sensitive political matters in Kashmir”, the document said.
The papers have been kept at the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, an autonomous body under India’s culture ministry. According to a source with knowledge of the matter, they reveal that Nehru was aware and informed of the military developments in Kashmir.
“Roy Bucher suggested a political approach to solve the escalating situation given the military fatigue faced by Indian troops due to 13 months of military deployment, including taking the matter before the United Nations,” the source said.
That advice may have influenced Nehru’s decision to grant Kashmir special status. In 1952, the prime minister argued that the aspirations of the people of Kashmir should be respected. “I want to stress that it is only the people of Kashmir who can decide the future of Kashmir,” he told India’s parliament. “We are not going to impose ourselves on them at the point of the bayonet.”
The Bucher papers were handed over by India’s external affairs ministry to the Nehru museum and library in New Delhi in 1970, with a note saying they should be kept “classified.” The documents have remained in the library’s closed collection since then, the foreign ministry said.
An Indian activist, Venkatesh Nayak, has filed multiple appeals to declassify the papers, a move that was initially rejected. However, in 2021, the Indian information commissioner ruled it was in the “national interest” but fell short of ordering the disclosure of the crucial documents. The order advised that the library may seek the foreign ministry’s permission to declassify the papers for academic research.
In a letter dated October 12, 2022, that has been reviewed by the Guardian, the chair of the museum and library, Nripendra Misra, wrote to India’s foreign secretary, arguing the papers “are very important for scholarly research” and requesting declassification.
“We have read the contents of the Bucher papers. Our view is that the papers need not remain “classified” beyond the reach of academicians. “We are opening papers for other important public figures also,” Misra argued.
India typically allows the declassification of archival documents after 25 years. The foreign ministry argued in the document that the disclosure of the papers should be put “in abeyance” for the time being and advised that the “sensitivity of the Roy Bucher papers and the likely implications of their disclosure” should be examined further.
Sources say the government has yet to take a final decision on the matter. The Guardian says it has contacted the Indian foreign ministry and the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library for a response.
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