Keep no secrets

In most democratic countries, official papers are released for research scholars and analysts after a specific time-period. But India has no such rule.

A statement by Manmohan Singh, made almost in passing in his unassuming manner, may hold the key to crucial changes in the way India handles contemporary history’s information database. At a function a couple of weeks ago, the Prime Minister noted that ‘serious scholarship in India on government policy is hampered by a lack of access to official documents’. He went on to add that ‘the time has come for us to have at least a 50-year rule, if not a 30-year rule, that allows scholars and researchers free access to declassified official papers’. This, if followed up, will mark an important turn for the recording of India’s contemporary history and policy-making documents — data that is today made ‘public’ only via personal memoirs and research articles based on the same.

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In most democratic countries, official papers are released for research scholars and analysts after a specific time-period. But India has no such rule. The Official Secrets Act from colonial times, a regressive law, stays unchanged to date. The draconian act has provisions for punishing those who procure ‘secret’ information from the government, but has no provisions to declassify the information after a set period of time. As a result, records in India remain classified, while the same set of records may easily be available at, say, London’s India Office Library. The need for change has become even more important because of the government’s new Right to Information Act which creates a strange situation where the public has been given the right to access contemporary information, but is not permitted to view documents that may be 30 or 50 years old.