Join hands with US to fight medievalist Taliban

Chanakya

The American Bear is wounded. It is baying for the blood of the Taliban that is giving shelter to Osama bin Laden, the prime suspect behind the bombings. It is preparing for war. It wants to bomb the suspected hideouts of bin Laden, smoke him out and kill him. This might require precision bombing from nearby, and the landing of troops to wage war with the Taliban.

To prosecute this, it needs allies: allies in Arabia, Central Asia, Pakistan and India. The Arab world is in jitters. Past attempts by the United States to hunt bin Laden and his followers were frustrated by Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, the United Arab Emirates and others, who fear that co-operation to the point of capturing bin Laden would provoke rebellion from their own populations who are festering with a sense of injustice.

But the US is in ill humour. It wants to know who its friends are.
The Arab states must be desperately hoping that the crisis would blow over, and better sense will prevail in America. They are hoping that the US will realise that it is not going to be a simple war with no risk to American life; and that a solution lies in prevailing over Israel; and that its NATO allies would persuade the US in favour of a more long-term strategy that focuses on better intelligence gathering and surgical, targeted elimination of terrorists through covert means rather than open war.

So must Pakistan be hoping. Fear and greed must be gripping Musharraf equally. On the one hand, he wants to use this God-sent opportunity to get close to the US to restore the relationship Pakistan had with the US in the past when it was fighting the Soviet-backed regime in Afghanistan, when money and guns were pumped in, and Pakistan could rely on the US to be its ally while the Generals made money. And Musharaff wants to come out of international isolation.

On the other hand, Musharraf knows that any war against the Taliban and the killing of bin Laden would provoke civil war in Pakistan. It is doubtful whether he would survive in such strife. Musharraf, therefore, wants to take the US along for a ride with sweet talk: he will say that Pakistan would co-operate with the US in mounting air raids on the Taliban if it is a mandated United Nations action, but hoping that the moment for taking hard decisions will never come. One never knows: time might heal wounds in America, and the fear of body bags might hold back the determination to strike at the Taliban.

The current situation poses a dilemma for India too. We have been the victims of the Taliban-inspired atrocities every day in Kashmir. Despite the secular tradition of India, the Taliban are driving a wedge and polarising sentiment in India into communal lines by turning Kashmir into a communal issue. It is in our interests—in the secular interests of India—to see an end to this medievalist fundamentalist Taliban regime of Afghanistan.

But supporting America poses risks. The Muslims in India will misinterpret support for America as an act against them. They will feel further alienated from the Indian nation, and become prey to fundamentalist forces and harbour terrorism. Those who are unhappy with globalisation and the threats it poses to the poor will join forces and rip up peace on the streets.

How should we manage this? First of all, we should be clear in our minds that we must fight the scourge of terrorism wherever it occurs. India is the democracy it is today because we fought imperialism through peaceful means under the leadership of Gandhiji, rather than through militarist or terrorist means. And terrorism kills innocent people. More immediately, we are fighting terrorism in Kashmir. Innocent people are dying every day. On grounds of our long-term interests, therefore, we should effectively co-operate with the US in getting rid of the Taliban, which is fundamentalist and visiting misery on its women and the poor. The peace it brought to Afghanistan is a peace of an oppressive religious order.

But in doing so, we must explain to our people the basis of our co-operation with the US. We must show our resolve to reinforce our secular traditions—that we are opposed to fundamentalism of all kinds—be it Islamic or Hindu or Christian.

We should also explain that we are in a new international context. The US sees us as a strategic ally in the new Century. Unless we exploit this new willingness in the US to come close to India, we will be left behind. Unless we bolster our position, we will be a minor power in Asia, in which China holds hegemony. And we must not allow Musharraf to sow the seeds of distance between us and the US.

Helping the US effectively in this moment of their national anguish not only shows that we are their friends as a democracy, but it will enhance our bargaining power in economic relations. We should learn to co-operate in areas where our interests coincide, and bargain in areas where we have interests to protect!

So let us go for it. Join hands with the US in fighting the wretched Taliban!

(Chanakya is the pseudonym of the author, who is a distinguished Indian political economist)