Ashish Dhongde

Sphere of Influence Ashish Dhongde

Sphere of Influence is a military-politico thriller on India's intervention in Central Asia. The near assasination of the long serving Tajik President throws the local government into chaos. As the President is operated upon at the Indian Military Hospital at Dushanbe an insurrection in the Tajik GBAO (Gorno-Badkhshan) province threatens to break the country into two. A desperate Tajik government reaches out to US and EU to intervene but its efforts are hobbled by a resurgent Russia which has it own idea on who can and cannot intervene. In the meantime across the Tajik Eastern border, the Chinese establishment is worried from hints of association of local government officials in the insurrection. With the spectacular failure of a Russian led air assault to take back the Capital of the GBAO, it seems that the province will be lost for the winter. In a behind the scene arrangement the Indian government decides to aggressively intervene but the terrain and inclement weather prevents a quick decisive buildup of troops. Eventually it is upto a company's worth of Indian and Tajik troops to stop the rebels from cutting of the crucial M 41 highway at Khorugh for the few hours that it will take for reinforcements to arrive.