When the president of Soviet Russia, Mikhail Gorbachev, announced an unconditional and unilateral withdrawal of all Soviet forces from Afghanistan, everybody smelt a rat in the recipe. Even the American superpower, with the most elaborate and sophisticated intelligence outfit construed it to be a deceptive move by the Soviet leadership. Everyone was left aghast when the Soviet army completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan with least hiccups. The withdrawal was not a ploy; it was genuine and was not an end in itself. It proved to be the preamble of the greatest drama, enacted on this planet, during the contemporary epoch, that is, disintegration of Soviet Russia, fall of Berlin wall, reunification of Germany and the demise of communism. All this was not an arbitrary happening, out of blue; the development was surely brought about by the dynamics of history.

Likewise the clouds of Indo-Pak antagonism also seem to be clearing from the sub-continental skies. The development promising termination of Indo-Pak vendetta, spread over some generations, is quite naturally being viewed with suspicion and distrust, by some quarters, who do not have an eye on the underpinnings of a sudden change of heart of the concerned leaderships. But there is a segment of vested interests as well, both in India and Pakistan, who have so far been thriving on the philosophy of crush Pakistan and crush India respectively. This later segment, hawks or the religious extremists, as known in the common parlance, is more vocal in expressing distrust and is also expected to fight tooth and nail to thwart the process of Indo-Pak rapprochement....more