It has to be taught before it can be caught - democracy.
But democracy is not conducive to all cultures. The teacher's of democracy need to be taught that first.
We should hope that the world doesn't engage on a pre-condition of democracy in Afghanistan at this delicate stage as even if the Taliban accept it, it will be a farce at worse & a shoddy one at best that will achieve opposite of it's intent in the long run.
The US makes the repeating mistake of regularly winning wars & losing peace by attempting to install rag-tag democracy in a haste & ahead of schedule.
Let the country achieve basic natural stability first. And we must help in the process. Law is not as important as order ,The latter is a priority now.
In Afghanistan, the Americans were found arming without aiming - to show intent to win their hearts while installing a security apparatus.
Frankly, they should have used the services of Indians for negotiations in the back channeling.
The Taliban wouldn't have dismissed us. At some level, they do have a soft corner for us. They even escorted our citizens' escape from home to airport. It has already been reported that they want Indians to return & continue working there.
The Americans asked for our army on rent instead & we obviously refused.
If China & Pakistan attempt to pour the war hardened mujaheddin into India, it's going to be rough - not just for India but for the entire world.
Today, as a major country with heft, economically growing & aligned to the West, while at the same time enjoying goodwill by equal measure with the middle-east & Russia, one can say - all roads lead to India.
The ray of hope also is in a fact that the Afghans look at India as a neutral country & a friend since ancient times (thus 'Hindu Kush' range so named & recall the Buddhas of Bamiyan), who have through history done a lot to engage, trade, help & build there.
Of course the ancient Gandhara & Maurya empires comprised of parts of Afghanistan and so the relationships .
Bollywood & Indian soap opera are a staple there.
In their cognitive mental construct, Taliban are split half & half in how they view India i.e. Friend vis-a-vis non-Muslim.
We hope the former i.e. conscience prevails, though Pakistan will do whatever they can to remind them of the differences & that we're Kafirs. The other spin that Hindu Kush means 'Killer of Hindus' may get activated. And it's not as if Pakistan is safe just because it's an established Islamic Republic.
Where does the Afghan imbroglio leave us today?
The world must appreciate & learn lessons from the super quick Afghan crumble.
The innate incompatibility of the Taliban with the concept of a democratic free world was crystal clear to them. The confusion if any, was with the others, led by America.
Bottom line is that the plan of the Taliban, powered by hyper-puritanical religious zest & crafty machination thereof, simply worked. Dismissed as not so sophisticated nomad like, the reality is that they were strategical. They were simply waiting it out & bidding their time. So well prepared were they & so delusional were the Americans, that all it took was just 12 days for the Taliban to own Kabul !
India too must be alerted. Not just at the borders but as a society too.
It's a miracle that we in India have survived an imperfect Democracy or even as a nation. It is only because of our cultural manifestation entwined in Hindu centric ethos of accepting whatever be the life's offering, including unfair suffering, as Karmic. For the record, the cultural influence of same is that notwithstanding the huge numbers & variety of sects, India is the only exception in the world where all types of Muslims live peacefully with each other, including for most part with non-Muslims. That is in contrast with everywhere else, as both regional & sectarianism related fear & actual violence is prevalent across the world where Muslim population is large.
That brings us here in timeline & now we are on the cusp of rising fast. Nothing should be allowed to derail that.
We must not lower our guard or take our well being for granted.
As goes the viral WhatsApp message : A non-Muslim person in Karachi would have laughed in 1940 if he would have been told that he would be uprooted in less than a decade. Same with a Kashmiri Pandit in 1985.
Both would have dismissed such a scenario & on the contrary doled out some naive sermon on morality or would have brushed the reality under the carpet under the guise of some decorum maintenance.
In the final reckoning, genocide was unleashed. The sufferers were not just the one's who were uprooted. You betcha - Karma works : In the long-term, the one's who deviced such a devious inhuman plan, remained stagnant & isolated and subsist only on regular doles.
Those who don't learn from history are condemned to be taught a lesson by it once again.
Sadly, we've already seen some here supporting the Taliban - especially those who can see only through the religious identity lens.
In time, they will find direct support from the Leftist looking for political mileage. And finally, also the indirect encouragement from the many Limousine Liberals who go about their oblivious ways like Alice in wonderland.
It is time that everyone - irrespective to their religion or political proclivity, must condemn the Taliban & their supporters within India in no uncertain terms. At the same time, the Indian government must sincerely engage with them behind the scenes, helping them gain face while very gradually dismantling their jihadist mentality - as one would, the wires of a ticking time bomb.
And hey, whatever be our issue with price of onion or petrol and how much ever we are unhappy with the quality of our socialism, secularism & democracy - let's all realize that these will survive only if the nation does.
So let's all strengthen India by addressing realpolitik which when distilled, tells us only one thing - our destiny is in our country's demography. Period.
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