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The Rise, Fall and
Resurgence of the Taliban
Happymon Jacob’s book sheds ample light on the Taliban with a comprehensive study of the factors responsible for its survival. Today’s Taliban, however, is not a monolith. It is also not as visible as it was when it captured power in the late 1990s. There are many Taliban factions, which can be broadly categorised as "moderates" and "extremists". In other words, there are those that want to join the Karzai government and others who are bitterly opposed to such an idea. Interestingly, the Taliban elements aspiring to find a place in the government are under greater influence of Pakistan. The Taliban’s umbilical cord being in Pakistan is one of the major factors keeping it alive as a force to be reckoned with. The other significant factors are the Taliban’s ethnic composition, the leadership and the cadres being mainly Pushtoon, and the failure of the international donors to come to the rescue of the Karzai government with as much funds as promised. Paucity of funds has been coming in the way of infrastructure development, resulting in the people’s economic woes not getting addressed properly.
The Taliban’s multi-pronged survival strategy, according to the author, has the following components: carry out guerrilla attacks in different parts of the country; continue the anti-US and anti-Karzai propaganda forcefully; kill aid workers and attack government facilities to cause fear and helplessness in the minds of the ordinary Afghans; kill any member of the clergy who debunks the Taliban; and wait for the US military to weary of being stuck in the Afghan quagmire. Whatever their strategy, the Taliban factions can be stopped in their tracks by undertaking development projects throughout the country with a view to ending unemployment, which remains widespread in Afghanistan. This means the countries which promised sufficient aid for Afghanistan’s reconstruction must realise their responsibility in the interest of peace and stability. They must honour their promises without delay. Whatever development work is going on is not picking up speed at some places because of the Taliban factor. That is why there is a move to win over the "moderate" Taliban factions, perhaps a US idea being implemented by the Karzai government. The idea also has the backing of Pakistan, which is feeling uneasy in the absence of pro-Islamabad elements in the Kabul regime. This is being done not only to buy peace but also to weaken the anti-Karzai forces. This is, however, a tricky situation for India. New Delhi will have to use its influence over Washington and Kabul to ensure that the rabidly anti-India Taliban members do not succeed in getting an entry into the government. Jacob’s book is useful from all these angles. It should be read by all those interested in understanding the Taliban, including the policy planners in New Delhi. It is a well-produced addition to the literature available on Afghanistan. |
VERY few people believed
that the Taliban, primarily a movement of madarsa students, would
survive the combined onslaught of the US-led multinational forces in the
wake of the terrorist attack on New York’s trade towers and the
Pentagon in Washington. The Taliban regime in Afghanistan did collapse,
but that was obvious. Most of those running the administration were
killed or captured. The militant movement, however, could not be
eliminated. Hardly a week passes without newspapers reporting attacks by
Taliban fighters on civilian and military targets in Afghanistan. The
Taliban, in fact, remains the most potent threat to the democratically
elected government of President Hamid Karzai.
Opening a few hospitals
and schools and colleges here and there is not enough. Employment
avenues remain very few. People in most provinces feel as insecure as
ever, particularly in the areas that have a considerable presence of the
Taliban. And such areas are too many, as illustrated in the book. A
war-torn country like Afghanistan needed an injection of massive
international financial assistance to normalise the situation faster.