We are living in remarkable times where profound and epoch marking changes are taking place at a rapid pace. Let us start from home and take the example of India. After thirty long years, Indians, the custodians of the world’s largest democracy, voted in a government with a clear cut majority, sick and tired from the plutocracy symbolized by the Congress, the party that has ruled India since long and is often blamed for slow progress that India has made on the development and human indices front since it gained independence from the British. Indians it seems have now made up their mind that they need a government with a spine at the Centre, a government that has the mandate to rein in the economic situation and rewrite the Indian growth story, something the Congress party couldn’t deliver because of the insufficient mandate that it had. Apart from this excuse, the Congress party has nothing to lean back on, except for its glorious past, being the vanguard of the Indian independence struggle that was mostly nonviolent in nature but it met chilling repercussions with the blood and gore that was the story of northwestern and eastern India (read Punjab and Bengal), regions that had to bear the brunt of the partition, a scar that can only be healed if a strong and stable Indian government acts in full confidence.
This takes us now to Pakistan, a state that had an artificial identity right from the beginning and has still to reconcile with its past. The siege within Pakistan has resulted from the military junta along with an elite class ruling Pakistan right from its induced birth and now it seems the baby was in fact still born, since many attempts in bringing it to life have failed; in short, Pakistan has turned out to be a failed state. Pakistani people should do a major rethink about the manner they have been blindfolded and constantly and unnecessary being compared to the Indian Republic, leading to the fostering of a strong anti-India sentiment and leading four wars between the two nuclear weapons armed states, all of them involving the region of Kashmir; while credit needs to be given to the Indian leadership, especially Indira Gandhi, in holding the fort and not budging an inch. Without digressing much from the topic, the people’s mass protest movement that has now taken root in Pakistan is the manifestation of the strong sense of disenchantment with the current rulers of this failed state, who came to power by mass rigging of the elections, failing yet again to compare favorably with its neighbor India. This is a somber time for Pakistanis and they have to think positively about their future and decide where their future lies, perhaps fostering very close ties with India may be the way for them.
Another major transition happening in the SAARC region is in Afghanistan, where democracy is in its infancy, and the people are giving themselves a change, after suffering unfathomable miseries under the Soviet occupation and then the evil regime of the so called ‘Taliban’. Afghan people have given out their verdict, a country that has got firm and indelible ties with the Indian Republic, have given their verdict and they want to move on from the horrors of the past and create a tradition of fostering development with democracy, something that will enrich the Afghan people further. It is in this context that it remains to be seen how the people of Afghanistan and Pakistan relate to the people of India, with ties that are timeless, and how the future will shape up with these three entities working in tandem. Perhaps, time has come for the Indian republic to take the initiative and the lead as well in fostering constructive ties with the other two entities.
This is not all. There are other major transitions going on in the world as a whole. The French Republic, having decided that its future lies with a unified Europe, has still to reconcile how to maintain its unique identity amidst all the chaos that is going on the front where the European union is facing a not so favorable time on the economic front. On the other hand, times of transition are also making their mark on the American continent and the Middle East. However, more on this later. Stay safe and keep the comments coming. It is only through a comprehensive and a conducive debate that we may all as humanity be able to deal successfully with such trying times. Thanks.

image courtesy: onelogin.com