Nayanima Basu’s ‘The Fall of Kabul: Despatches from Chaos’ is a recollection of the Taliban takeover

Vivek Katju

Nayanima Basu’s ‘The Fall of Kabul: Despatches From Chaos’ falls into two distinct categories. The first is an engrossing account of the collapse of the Afghan Republic and the takeover of the country by the Taliban, signalled by their capture of the capital on August 15, 2021. The second is a 55-page analytical epilogue on the Afghan situation as it has evolved since the Taliban takeover.

Basu reached Kabul on August 8. By that time, the Taliban had gained control of a large number of provinces and most of the country’s border crossings, but the major cities of Mazar-e-Sharif, Herat and the capital, Kabul, still held out. At the same time, ‘power-sharing’ discussions between the Kabul political elite and representatives continued in Doha. However, since US President Joe Biden had announced in April that US forces would leave Afghanistan latest by September 11 that year, the Republic’s days were numbered. The Taliban then knew that the Ghani administration could not knit anti-Taliban political forces and inspire them to resist it or gather popular support. At the same time, contrary to what many diaspora Afghans in power in Kabul and foreign countries, including India, thought, the Afghan army had lost the will to fight. This is because warfighting in Afghanistan has a character which is distinctive from other countries. It therefore became inevitable that the Taliban would become masters of Afghanistan again, with or without a token representation of the Republic.

This was the setting in which Basu took the courageous decision of reaching Kabul. Her account of the surreal and uncertain situation in the city and the conflicting views of its ordinary citizens on the Taliban is fascinating. The story of her journalistic enterprise is interwoven with her own emotions, anxieties and fears. While that is normal at a human level, it diverts attention from the ground situation. On the 10th and 11th, Basu visited Mazar-e-Sharif where she interviewed Tajik leader Ata Noor, who said that he would defend the city till the end. But when the Taliban came knocking on the 14th, Noor fled across the Amu Dariya. Once a substantial jihadi leader, two decades of soft living, evident from Basu’s description of his office, had robbed him of the will to fight.

Basu’s writing of the scene in Kabul from the 12th to the 15th, when the Taliban entered the capital and president Ashraf Ghani shamefully fled the country, leaving the people he had sworn to serve in the lurch, shows the breakdown and the conflicting sentiments of the people: apprehension, fear, indifference and denial of reality. She also notes the rumours that were ‘swirling’ around the city. Interestingly, Basu was interviewing Gulbuddin Hekmatyar on the day the Taliban entered Kabul, which led to an abrupt end to the interaction. Her return to Serena hotel, where she was staying, from Hekmetyar’s home was a harrowing experience as the city had descended into chaos.

The troubles of that journey were nothing in comparison to what she and an unnamed Indian male journalist, who was with her, experienced at the Kabul airport on the 16th morning. They were booked on an Air India flight that never arrived. Meanwhile, pandemonium had descended with Afghans trying to flee and the Taliban attempting to control the situation, including firing bullets and killing and injuring persons. At great risk, they both managed to reach the Indian Mission, which was preparing to evacuate, though that was not — and correctly so — being shared with non-officials to prevent any panic from setting in. Basu is unfair to the Mission. Consider this sentence about the situation on the 14th when a peace deal was still considered feasible by some in Kabul: “This was also what I heard from Indian embassy officials, who seemed to be more concerned by my presence there than about the ground situation, which was changing every second.” It is the duty of the Mission to be “concerned” about Indians in its jurisdiction rather than sharing their assessment of the changing situation even with a journalist. It was also creditable that the Indian ambassador hoisted the national flag on Independence Day despite Kabul being under violent chaos. On the 17th morning, Basu was evacuated along with the Mission staff and other Indians by an IAF aircraft to India.

Basu’s coverage of the post-Taliban takeover of Afghanistan is analytical and commendable. She deals with the Taliban’s leadership and its orientations, and its connections with terrorist groups. She is particularly good on the Taliban-TTP and Pakistan ties. She also goes into the orientations of foreign countries towards the Taliban, especially China, and laments the world coming to terms with it and the loss of the social gains of two decades, especially for women. She is accurate in her assessment of the absence of any real resistance to the Taliban.

Basu’s book should be read by the general reader as well as those with an enduring interest in Afghanistan.