Senior bureaucrats across India have consulted a classified blue-coloured, limited edition, highly-confidential government handbook over the past week, as the country prepared for an escalation of the ongoing conflict against Pakistan. The 200-page handbook, called the Union War Book 2010, provides detailed guidelines for various government branches during armed hostilities.
HT reported sources as saying that each state's Chief Secretary possesses a copy of the classified manual, along with relevant Union ministries. "It tells these key officers what each one of them should do in case of a war. So there is no confusion at all and everybody has a clear idea of what protocol to follow," explained a senior bureaucrat who requested anonymity due to the sensitive nature of the topic.
The report stated that officials have recently begun publicly referencing it in their statements and directives. After a closed-door meeting held by Maharashtra chief minister Devendra Fadnavis last Friday, his office issued an official note in Marathi, instructing officials to "Study central government's Union War Book and inform about the instructions to all the concerned."
Although the tradition of a war book dates back to colonial era governance practices, with a new edition typically published every 15 years or so. The current version in circulation among very senior bureaucrats was brought out in 2010 — two years after the deadly 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks that claimed 174 lives, including civilians, foreign nationals and security personnel.
Though the relevance of a 15-year-old document may be debatable in today's rapidly evolving technological scene, the officials quoted in the report explained that the book receives annual updates from the Ministry of Defence, Ministry of Home Affairs and the Cabinet Secretariat. "While an updated version of the book is brought out every 15 years or so, every year, the three ministries send notes. These are then pasted on the book. Technological updates are a part of it," the source revealed.
Union War Book 2010: What does the manual contain?
The manual features both modern and traditional approaches to crisis management. HT reported that its contents talk about, among other things, need to focus on maintaining food supplies, provisions for "social media management" and instructions for formation of district cyber monitoring cells which would work in tandem with police IT wing to track and report inflammatory social media posts. Officials opine that old-fashioned torches and conventional communication methods like radios remain important as mobile networks could be targeted in times of war.
The document also outlines "administrative mobilisation" procedures, like maintaining staff rosters and volunteer coordination for unhindered operations during emergencies.
It also talks in detail about evacuations and sirens, how to conduct fire drills and a to-do list in case of emergencies.
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