India to ‘declassify' some files related to SL

11 October 2012 03:48 am

The Indian government said it is in the process of declassifying more than two lakh files related to countries including Sri Lanka, the PTI said quoting a top official.

The development comes soon after the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) declassified 70,000 files.

The MEA is in the process of "finalizing a major project to declassify another set of 220,000 files- records covering Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Pakistan, Iran and Sri Lanka, East Asia, Eurasia and the Americas," said MEA Special Secretary (Public Diplomacy) Pinak Chakravarty.

He was addressing an International Seminar on Early Years of Nuclear Cooperation and Non-Proliferation: A Dialogue on Nuclear Historicities.

Throwing light on India's nuclear policy, Chakravarty said it "remains firmly rooted in the basic tenet that our country's national security, in a world of nuclear proliferation, lies either in universal, non-discriminatory disarmament or in the exercise of the principle of equal and legitimate security for all."

Commenting on the MEA decision to declassify files, IDSA Director Arvind Gupta said "MEA's recent declassification of a large number of files pertaining to India's foreign policy is a step in the right direction."

"Some of these files, which are now available with the National Archives, pertain to the nuclear issues. More files need to be declassified,” he said.