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The Nepal Prime Minister Mr. Pushpa Kumar Dahal ‘Prachanda’ has put his resignation after trying to sack the Chief of Army Staff in Nepal. This is in fact something Nepal should be worried about. However, it is India which is more worried with this news and it is required to react this way. Let’s first see what caused this incident. The Nepal Prime Minister Prachanda wanted the army to enroll all the hardliners among the Maoists which counts to more than 19000, in the Army which the chief of Army staff refused as he said that it would be difficult to integrate such a large force of Maoist cadre with the army’s rank and file, particularly since the two had been fighting each other not long back

There are efforts being going on in Nepal to form another government and the old warhorses like GP Koirala and MK Nepal are once again in the picture. However the concern that India has is more of a threat nature because of this resignation. Since Prachanda is inclined towards Maoists there is a huge possibility that there might be some political unrest in Nepal and this unrest may be violent as well. It was not long ago when the Maoists were a huge threat to Nepal as a nation.

For India, there is a huge problem in its neighborhood everywhere. In the West, Pakistan has posted a Pseudo war. In the South, the LTTE problem in the state of Sri Lanka is of huge concern for India, in the East, Bangladesh is a safe hideout for many foreign terrorists working against India. The only safe place was Nepal in the North. Now there is a huge possibility that the Pakistani terrorists might once again find it safe to slip into India through Nepal as we share more than 1751 KM border with Nepal.  The government has taken an immediate step to beef up the security along the border with Nepal. This is to ensure that there is no infiltration from this side.

The crisis of the infant democracy in Nepal has increased chances of China once again looking an opportunity to catch hold of the Maoists of Nepal to provoke them against India. Though Mr. Prachanda said that he would seek to strengthen the infant democracy in Nepal, it is also to be noted that now that the Maoists have tasted power, it would be difficult to visualize a scenario in which the Maoists return to jungles once again.

The Political statements from different parties in India suggests that India has nto done enough to save the neighboring state from this crisis though the government of India claimed that it was in constant contact with the first Maoist Prime Minister in Nepal to solve the situation. External Affairs Minister of India Mr. Pranab Mukherjee hoped that the broadest possible consensus would make it possible for Nepal to concentrate on the agreed tasks of constitution making and of democratic transition. BJP, the main opposition party in India has blamed the UPA government for not acting in time and for being a mute spectator when the political unrest was growing in Nepal.

 In fact the government of India was surprised to hear that Prachanda has decided to resign as his government was reduced to minority because two major allies of his coalition government pulled off the support. It was also learnt that Prachanda has accused India without naming it for the current crisis. The official statement as a reaction for this is not known however it is heard by some of the reporters from  the officials in New Delhi that India had been extremely careful while watching the developments in Nepal in the last one month, lest it was seen to be playing the “Big Brother’s role.”

When Chandragupta was busy laying the foundation of an Indian empire the Greek general of Alexander Selucus, who succeeded Alexander in the eastern parts of his empire, was moving towards India to recover the lost Greek possessions. The Indus was the eastern limit of his dominions, but he was not satisfied with this. He crossed the Indus with a large army and attempted to conquer the Punjab as Alexander had done. But he was soon disillusioned. Alexander had to fight against a divided India split into a multitude of states, but Seleucus had to face a united and stronger India. The Punjab was not longer a congeries of mutually warring tribes as Alexander had found it. I was now an integral part of an all India Empire ruled by Chandragupta Maurya, the greatest military general of India. He was perhaps well acquainted with the military tactics of the Greeks and has also the partial advantage of fighting in his own country. Selucus reached the India in about 305 BC. He was defeated in the battle with the Indian armies, and was compelled to enter into a treaty with Chandragupta Maurya. The classical writers are silent about the details of the conflict with Chandragupta but merely record the results. Selucus had to purchase peace by ceding to Chandragupta the provinces of Gandhara, Kabul, Heart and Baluchistan. In return, Chandragupta presented 500 war elephants to Selucus. To further cement the friendship between the two, Selucus married his daughter to Chandragupta Maurya. The treaty is very important from historical point of view because it extended the boundaries of Chandragupta’s empire to the Hindukush range and this gave it a splendid natural frontier. About the importance of the treaty, the first Indian emperor more than two thousand years ago entered into possession of the scientific frontier sighted for in vain by his English successor, and never held in its entirety even by the Mughal monarchs of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.

Chandragupta ruled for about 24 years. He created the first united Indian empire known to the Indian history. He liberated the Punjab and the North West from the foreign yoke and established himself as the conqueror of the whole of north India as far as the Hindukush Mountains. He undoubtedly ruled over a vast empire which extended from the borders of Persia in the north and up to Mysore or Karnataka in the south. All these achievements entitle him to rank among the greatest and most successful kings known to history. He was succeeded by his son Bindusara, who ruled for about 2 years. During the early years of his reign, there was a rebellion in the province of Taxila. He sent Asoka with a strong force to restore peace in the region. After Asoka had accomplished his task, he was appointed the viceroy of the province of Punjab.

Bindusara maintained intact the vast empire which he had inherited from his father. He also continued the friendly policy of his father with the Greek princes of the North West. Antiochus, the successor of Selucus is said to have sent to the court of Bindusara, a Greek Ambassador named Deimachos who took the place which megasthenes had held in the days of Chandragupta. There is a story that Bindusara wrote to Antiochus to send him some figs and raisin wine and added that he would be also obliged if he sent him a philosopher to teach him to argue. Antiochus sent him a good quantity of the best available figs and raisin wine but regretted that he could not comply with this third request as it was not lawful for the Greeks to sell a philosopher. The story is important form three points of view. First, that there existed familiar exchange of thought between the people of Greece and India, second that Bindusara had a philosophical bent of mind. Thirdly, it shows that the empire of Bindusara was too powerful to being ignored by the strongest of the western power.