‘Rajiv regarded Pak as strategic buffer against USSR’

Contradicting perceived proximity to the Soviet Union in the Cold War era, India under the then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi had toyed with the idea of supporting anti-Russian civilian groups in Pakistan if the then Zia regime was thrown out by Moscow, a recent declassified CIA document has claimed.

According to CIA documents of the era, which were recently declassified and posted on the CIA website under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), which is similar to India’s Right to Information Act, Gandhi wanted non-interference from both the US and the then USSR. “PM Rajiv Gandhi would like both the USSR and the United States to end their involvement in South Asia,” noted the 31-page CIA document titled ‘The Soviet Presence in Afghanistan: Implications for the Regional Powers and the US’.