SOURCE: Tribune News Service
Political and military affairs expert Dr C Christine Fair and former ambassador KC Singh discussed looming situation in Afghanistan after the US troops would move out and its repercussions in the session on ‘The Taliban are coming calling: Deep states in Pakistan and India and Role of Media’ during Military Literature Festival 2020 here on Friday..
Dr Fair said after US troops move out of Afghanistan, the real issue would be of air power.
“Afghanistan would need air support. Having said this, the troop withdrawal would happen. The problem is we (the USA) are handing over Afghanistan to Pakistan,” added Fair, while pointing out flawed US policy for the last 20 years in the region where no serious effort was made to curtail Pakistan has been made.
She also pointed out the issue of funding for Afghanistan. Singh said that once the USSR broke down and couldn’t fund Afghanistan, the government fell down.
“India could play a role here. Earlier, India and Iran had supported the Northern Alliance. Emirates and Saudis are upset with Pakistan. The US has to work with Iran but elections are coming up there. These fractures are working in favour of the Taliban,” he said, while highlighting that the Chinese presence in Ladakh would close some options for India.
Dr Fair said that a civil war could break out in Afghanistan.
“America is delegitimising democracy in Afghanistan. They want a puppet democracy. They are pushing Ghani (Ashraf Ghani) to give up the election. The Taliban is getting what they want. Pakistan is playing clever. They think that delegitimising democracy would create chaos in Afghanistan. Pakistan is maestro of chaos.”
On the role of media, Dr Fair said over the years the traditional media lost a lot of money.
“In the USA, the watchdog media shifted to access journalism. Access is money in India,” she said. Singh pointed out that newspapers run by trusts in India still have credibility.
Dr Fair said a lot of terrorist groups have presence over social media like facebook and Twitter including Taliban through proxies.
On deep state, Dr Fair said that Pakistan did have a deep state but in India military leadership has little say.
But Singh pointed out that Indian intelligence agencies were being used for political ends by the people in power.
“In case of the RAW, the oversight is missing. The ED and CBI are being used to go after people which the government doesn’t like,” he said.
