Ranbir Singh Pathania
Taliban cat is now out of the bag. With Afghanistan again pushed backwards into a culture of klashinkov and jihad.
Visuals of hordes of people running on the Kabul airport and dropping mid-air from the wings of US airships depict a worst humanitarian crisis.
Women, minorities and liberals are out and out to leave Afghanistan for a better living in any other part of the world.
With the Taliban, its diktats have also come out of the closet. Women cannot show even an inch of bare skin. No education. No peep-out from balconies. No public addresses. And those accused of adultery shall be stoned to death. Amnesty International had recorded a case where finger of a girl was chopped off for using nail-polish.
Democracy, pluralism and mutual co-existence are expected to see an all time low.
Nonetheless, US President Joe Biden has the face and the nerves to stand behind his decision. Let history test the wisdom and statesmanship behind the all surprise move.
Political commentators across the world have called it as a reincarnation of America humiliation in Vietnam in 1975. Some have also equated it with fall of Saigon. While a section of commentators allege US policy of ‘strategic patience’ turning into ‘strategic tolerance’ and even benign negligence’.
‘Equally it has been easier to enter Kabul than to leave it’ as quoted by M. J. Akbar in ‘Shade of Swords’.
Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan is thumping chest and bursting with ecstasy and exhilaration calling it as ‘shaken off chains of slavery’. Let Pakistan keep in mind what Hilary Clinton had said once to it, ‘You cannot keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbors”. What shall be the fate of Pakistan’s Northwest Frontier Province, Pashtunva, Peshawar and other flash points surrounding Durand line, only time will tell.
China and Russian have granted recognition to the new regime. China has commented ‘Nothing is cast in stone for ever’.
Playing smartly for getting international recognition, Taliban is trying to put on a progressive mantle. But the core ideology of Taliban in intent as well as purpose, cannot change at all. Let us again keep in mind that the middle rung leadership of Taliban belongs to core fundamentalists and Jihadis.
This frenzied, bigoted group of fundamentalists have been specifically created by Pakistan just with a view to disturb the peace in South-Asia. They are hardliner maniacs – first and the last.
A wolf never changes its spots is a one liner to those who advocate legitimizing or pampering Taliban and as per the popular sentiment.
Demolition of Buddha statues in Bamiyon is still fresh in our minds. Landing of hijacked Indian plane at Kandhar leading to release of dreaded militant, Masood Azhar, is another grim reminder.
And this time, busts of Maharaja Ranjit Singh were vandalized in Lahore once Taliban took control of Kabul.
And if we are so fond of hobnobbing, Why should we not open channels with saner/rational elements in Afghanistan?
May it be offering support to Amrullah Saleh – the progressive leader – who has virtually fired salvo of resistance against Taliban.
Or to Ahmed Massoud, son of the lion of Panjsheer, Ahmed Shah Massoud. He has hit the headlines through a passionate panegyric in opinion-page of Washington Post, “I write from the Panjshir Valley today, ready to follow in my father’s footsteps, with mujahideen fighters who are prepared to once again take on the Taliban. We have stores of ammunition and arms that we have patiently collected since my father’s time, because we knew this day might come,”
Masooud’s father, had valiantly fought unwanted expansions of Russia. He fought tooth and nail against Taliban’s interpretation of Islam during its first tenure. Anyhow he was assassinated days before 9/11.
We need to push Abdul Rasheed Dostum too – the ‘Hero” and Pasha of Afghanistan’. He is a prominent Northern Alliance leader and a general. He had been Vice President of Afghanistan from 2014 to 2020.
A diverse spectrum of thoughts and theories have flown thick and fast on the media/social media in India. Anyhow, we should keep ourselves less influenced by narratives created by a few vested interests on media/social media. A group of irregular, untrained and unplanned 70-75000 people hold out an almost a nascent threat over here. We should keep in mind that we belong to a nation worth 140 crores. Largest army of the world. Fourth largest air force. Fifth largest naval force. And a legacy of changing boundaries and maps of recalcitrant, high-flowing neighbors.
And an oldest civilizational roots and a golden culture epitomising ‘Sarve Bhavantu Sukhina’.
(The columnist practices law at the J & K, High Court of Judicature. )
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