India is attempting to obstruct the declassification of 1947 Kashmir papers.

ISLAMABAD (A News) : According to a Guardian story, India may not declassify the 1947 Kashmir letters because of worry about the repercussions on its diplomatic relations.

According to the article, the Butcher papers – the official term for the letters – include the discussions that prompted India’s first Prime Minister, Jawaharlal Nehru, to declare a special status for Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir and ask for a cease-fire with Pakistan.

The Bucher files include contacts between Gen Sir Francis Robert Roy Bucher, the Indian army’s second commander-in-chief from 1948 to 1949, and government leaders, including Nehru.

According to a recent foreign ministry memo obtained by the Guardian, the contents of the files should not be disclosed just yet. The files include “military operational activities in Kashmir and communication with top government authorities on sensitive political concerns in Kashmir,” according to the statement.

The documents were held in the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library, which is run independently by India’s cultural ministry. According to a person with knowledge of the situation, Nehru was aware of and kept up to date on the military activities in Kashmir.

“Roy Bucher proposed a political solution to the worsening crisis, considering the military weariness suffered by Indian forces as a result of 13 months of military duty, including bringing the subject to the United Nations,” the source added.

Such counsel may have impacted Nehru’s decision to award special status to Kashmir. In 1952, the prime minister claimed that the people of Kashmir’s aspirations should be honoured. “I want to emphasise that only the people of Kashmir can determine their destiny,” he told India’s parliament. “We’re not going to force ourselves on them with a bayonet.”

The Bucher documents were given to the Nehru museum and library in New Delhi by India’s foreign affairs ministry in 1970, with a letter stating that they should be kept “classified.” According to the foreign ministry, the papers have remained in the library’s closed collection since then.

Venkatesh Nayak, an Indian activist, has submitted repeated petitions to declassify the documents, which were first denied. Nevertheless, in 2021, the Indian information commissioner declared that it was in the “national interest,” but did not mandate the release of the critical papers. The directive said that the library might request authorization from the foreign ministry to declassify the files for academic study.

Nripendra Misra, the head of the museum and library, wrote to India’s foreign secretary on October 12, 2022, saying that the documents “are highly significant for academic study” and demanding declassification.

“We have read the Bucher papers’ contents. “We are opening files for other key public personalities as well,” Misra asserted, arguing that the papers do not need to stay “classified” outside the grasp of scholars.

Declassification of historical materials in India is normally permitted after 25 years. In the memo, the foreign ministry argued that the revelation of the files should be placed “on hold” for the time being, and that the “sensitivity of the Roy Bucher papers and the possible ramifications of their disclosure” should be investigated further.

According to sources, the administration has yet to make a final judgement on the topic. The Indian foreign ministry and the Nehru Memorial Museum and Library have been asked for comment, according to The Guardian.