With India clueless and dazed, its future in Afghanistan is getting grimmer with China, Pakistan, Russia and Iran on the same page, and its ally, the US, solely interested in getting out of there, at least as of now.
The arrest of a top cop in Kashmir in a terror plot along with terrorists opens a can of worms which can be traced to the hanging of Afzal Guru who was hanged to appease ‘the collective conscience of the nation’.
US President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate in Kashmir and his rehabilitation of Pakistan as a frontline State against terror is a manifestation of India’s loss of leverage in Afghanistan after it lowered its engagement with Chabahar port and Iran.
Sheila Dikshit would be missed as a liberal democrat, a great and visionary administrator, a symbol of urban modernity, a refined connoisseur of arts and culture, and an affable and amiable person with a big heart full of warmth and generosity.