I've been arguing since 2006 for New Delhi to reach out to the Taliban, which would increase India's leverage in Afghanistan.
In 2011, after a trip to Afghanistan to meet and talk to Taliban leaders and commanders, I gave this talk at The Aspen Group in New Delhi.
Listen to my talk on Youtube and decide whether India has missed a trick here:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89EijnVml-4
# in hindustan we don't understand loyalty. this can be best exemplified by: i against my brother. i and my brother against my cousin. i, my brother, and my cousin against the world. for us it is always my enemy's enemy is my friend. hindustan will include all the daalkhors, viz indians, and pakistanis, bangladeshis. the arthashastra is mostly about intrigue. kishore mahbubani famously observed, india has always found itself supporting the losing side; during the cold war we were of the soviet camp, now we are chuffed at being pals with the yanks. plainly silly because the latter have never been shy in telling anyone who cares to listen - america has no permanent friends or enemies, only interests. we keep on banging about corruption, our large population, being our problem. actually our problem is that we do not understand professionalism, we are always nothing but amateurs, and nowhere more so than in our diplomatic and consular service, our administrative and police services, our general staff in all three branches of the military, our think-tanks, intelligentsia. as every diplomat in chanakya puri knows the only way to deal with our elites is to flatter us as being extraordinarily intelligent, a very old and rich civilization, the emerging great power whose time has come, include our big-cheez in important committees, groups even if only with observer status, feed our appetite for luxury goods, green-cards, and junkets abroad. and we will hand over to their commercial attache, trade consul, military attache, a blank cheque from the consolidated fund of india.
ReplyDelete