Modi ji and Khan saheb

                                              

                                              Modi ji and Khan saheb

Today, in the age of social media we are living in the cosmos of parallel universes and alternate realities or rather fabricated realities. These notions of parallel universes and multiple realities were, so far a good fodder for sci-fi movies but social media has facilitated, as the best carrier, for them to invade our commonplace existence. A human being juggles between several identities namely ; his real life identity, Facebook identity, Twitter identity, Orkut identity and the ultimately distorted one, which comes out as a consequence of juggling between these multiple identities. This digital tampering with human existence has not only affected his routine, social life but also his realm of thoughts i.e. the realm where theories of political science, philosophy and metaphysics are formed, the realms where the foundation of future political, social and educational institutions are laid. In this scenario, it becomes essential to identify the points and sources of such tampering and, fix them in advance. One such case of digital distortion is the subject matter of this article.

Today, from various quarters, I hear about the comparison between Mr. Narendra Modi and Mr. Imraan Khan saheb. Since the subcontinent is having its own bouts of democracy these days, such comparisons have become common. The primary reason for the comparison is the vigorous and over enthusiastic presence of their supporters and their campaign machinery on social media. Besides this, the comparison emanates from the nature of support base for both of them. It has been observed and alleged that they are primarily middle class heroes. They are the ones with whom middle class, with all its ambitions, reservations, confusions and self-serving presumptions can identify with. The overarching presence of social media in their campaign machinery has brought them more or less in the same league.

But, I feel that these similarities are superficial and they end here. One need not draw too many political theories and conclusions about political processes, developments and thoughts from this superficial and the so-called digital cloud which hides the reality.

As far as support base is concerned Mr. Khan could purely be categorized as a middle class candidate but Mr. Modi is much more than a middle class hero. He is a trained RSS (Rashtriya Svayasewak Sangh) cadre who has spent years, spreading Hindutva ideology and, doing social work in rural areas, among the tribal community. So, he possesses a great understanding of rural society, its concerns and culture. His supporters, not only in Gujrat, but also in other states of India have strong rural base. He is a quite popular character in rural areas of India. The imagery, examples used by him in his election speeches and political rhetoric are often reflective of his rural experience and connect with the masses. Besides this, there is an additional reason for his support in rural areas. Mr. Modi’s support and popularity emanates from two sources :a) His governance model and development initiatives; b) Hindutva ideology, brilliantly spiced with rousing communal rhetoric.

In urban areas, Modi Ji is better known for his polarizing agenda, dictatorial approach and efficient governance. The urban middle-class, though likes him for his smart and high-tech governance, but it also has some soft corner, if not for his communal and hatred agenda, then at the least for his nationalist, pro-hindutva ideology and his opposition to extreme minority appeasement. In rural areas his efficient governance model (real or hyped: that needs to be investigated) may not be that popular but, without doubt there is a big constituency for Hindutva ideology. In addition to this the farmers have lately started identifying Mr. Modi with 24 hr. electricity, excellent agricultural extension facilities and a helpful bureaucracy. I have often observed in my personal conversations with the people of Gujrat, from all the communities, that they neglect his polarizing agenda for his efficient government. Even the Muslims of Gujrat have opined, in my personal interactions with them, their preference for Mr. Modi.

The next important issue regarding middle-class support base is the role, nature and strength of middle class in both the countries. In India, although the size of middle class (25%) is smaller than that of Pakistan (about 40%) but role played by it in political processes and economy is much more significant than the one played by its counterpart in Pakistan. The nature of middle class, its voting behavior is different in both the countries. In my personal interaction with many representatives of Pakistani middle class, I have felt that its tolerance for democracy and its side-effects is really low. It often indulges in romancing with dictatorial utopias and corruption-free bacchanalias. Its support for Imran Khan was not, because of any love for democracy but, because of a certain image i.e. of a young, modern, liberal, handsome and promising man with solutions for all the ills of Paksitani society and polity, which Mr. Khan projected against the corrupt and status-quoist government of Zardari Saheb. This support comes out of the tendency to look outward for all the solutions. It comes out of the psyche of waiting for avtars (incarnations) to solve your issues, when talking actions on your own gets you out of your comfort zone, physically as well as mentally. Then the middle class do not play a very important role on opinion making and government decisions. It does not have a strong impact of government policy.

On the other hand, Indian middle class has no demonstrated love for any form of dictatorship. Indira ji’s emergency taught the lessons of dictatorship to Indian middle class. There all fantasies of dictatorial utopias vanished with that dark phase of Indian democracy. In spite of the fact that Indian middle class wants efficient and quick-decision making government, it shows no penchant for any dictatorships. The anti-emergency protests were led by middle-class student groups and leaders. Indian middle class is the bedrock of India’s political and economic growth. This major presence in the political and economic growth scenario could be traced to a different growth trajectory that the political and economic institutions took place in India. Hence an outright comparison between the two, without taking into account the contextual factors, will be unjustified. Nevertheless, broadly speaking we can say that the two sets of ‘Imran khan-Pakistani middle class’ and ‘Narendra Modi-Indian Middle class’ should be seen and anaylzed in more detail, capturing those nuances and subtle features which arise out of broader socio-economic and political forces and the course of development these institutions took in these two countries. A comparison based on literal or conventional understanding of the terms would be superficial and misleading. Therefore the origin, attitude, nature and the role of middle class in both the countries needs to be studied in more detail

Besides this, it is not the case that entire middle class uniformly supports Modi ji. A major section especially the intelligentsia does not approve of the polarizing policies and communal ideology of Mr. Modi. There are several other chasms. The middle-class is divided along the lines of caste, community and ideology. Even among Muslims there is a strong middle class and surprisingly even in that group, one can very often find Modi supporters.

Both the leaders have glaring differences in their personalities. Mr. Modi has led a religious, regimented life of a Sangh worker, steeped in Hindutva ideology. He has been trained and has retained his own strains of fanaticism from Sangh background. On the other hand, Mr Imraan Khan has led a very, flamboyant, and glamorous life, basking in the limelight of cricket and his adventures with white beauties. There is slight funny, comparison which can be drawn. People like Mr. Imraan Khan have already been through the ‘Jannat’(heaven) promised by religious scriptures, where as people like Mr. Modi are in the preparatory stage for the so called ‘Indralok’(Hindu notion of heaven) or ‘Jannat’. Despite being at two opposite ends, still there is something that connects them!!!!!

Besides this, Mr. Modi has served almost three terms as chief minister so he is a well trained politician in realpolitik, whereas Imran khan has no actual experience of being in power. He  still dwells in the comfort zone of a naïve and moth-eaten visionary, confused between the idealism, pragmatism, religious fundamentalism, opportunism and of course, last but not the least ‘pleasure…ism’. His development agenda based on ‘Bihar model’ and his panacea to tackle fundamentalism by appeasing Taliban smacks of sheer immaturity and lack of understanding. Basically, the societal contexts in which the two leaders are operating are very different. In Pakistan, the issues of development and corruption are not the real issues. Mr. Imran khan has not been able to identify the real issues impacting and dismantling that society. Those real issues are religious fundamentalism and its increasing and overarching presence, devastating almost all the political, social and cultural institutions and the last remnants of state power and legitimacy. The society in which Mr. Modi flourished i.e. Gujrat is also a highly communal one, but its, more important concerns are material prosperity and economic growth. So, in that society the issues of development, corruption and effective governance are the real issues and State government’s better performance on those fronts won support and nation-wide popularity for Mr. Modi. All over the country, not just middle class but people from all classes, communities and backgrounds now feel connected with these issues. In fact in Indian politics these days, the trend is not of ideologies but substantial developments. The days of dreamy ideologies, religious passions and narrow minded caste fraternities are more or less gone. This is the reason why Mr. Nitish Kumar has been successful in Bihar. If not Mr. Modi anyone who has proved himself as pro economic reforms and efficient administrator would have been able to woo the masses.

In the light of above analysis, I prefer to conclude that Mr. Modi’s electoral future could most certainly be very different from that of Khan saheb. The current state of affairs in India is marked by status-quoism, complete policy paralysis and corruption, demands a leader who means business and efficiency. Hence in spite of intense hatred for his communal ideologies the sections of intelligentsia has also started nurturing hopes in Modi ji. They have seen a government full of brightest intellectuals performing worse on the front of governance so now the search begins for sound and effective leadership. 

One Year in Cornell and ………Meeting History

                       One Year in Cornell and ………Meeting History

The summers in Ithaca are a good time to reflect on your graduate experience. For me it’s a great feeling to reflect upon the events of past one year, spent in potlucks, gossips, case memos, stressful pre-exam nights spent in Olin and Mann libraries, and crazy internship hunts.

These days, often during my long, endless evening walks amidst solitary woods and fireflies of Ithaca in the foggy nights around the trails of gorges, I ponder over my first year in Cornell. In my quest to find out my achievements and experiences, I come across several things like a little artificial or natural twist in my accent, a good G.P.A, enhancement in my social skills, new fondness of operas and jazz, my capacity of doing weed and Jack Daniel’s intake but the most fascinating experience of my first year is my lyrical and almost ethereal encounter with the history of Indian subcontinent, central Asia and Middle East and Europe.

Since my high school days the history of the subcontinent with its episodes of silk route, Mughals, Kushanas and Parthian empires had almost a magical and mystical impact on my persona. I still remember that in my under-graduation days, how I had immersed my cognitive being in the thoughts of medieval battles, Portugese horse traders and Buddhist monasteries sprawling in the cold deserts of China and grasslands of Turkistan.

Here, after almost an era, I meet those vivid images of history. I shall begin with my brushes with India’s immediate neighbor Pakistan.  When I see my friends from Pakistan serenading the bollywood hits like ‘papa kehte hai’, ‘ koi kahe kehta rahe’ , I get a glimpse of what the sub-continent was before partition or could have been in the event of different historical course. Today my country men’s knowledge about Pakistan is confined to ISI, Haqqani networks, bomb blasts of Karanchi and Quetta Hafiz Saed, Benazeer Bhutto, Veena Malik and Rahat Fateh Ali khan. But, we should know some other stuff which is actually quite cool. When I see my friend Wasiq’s intense and proud feelings about his rajput ancestors, it introduces me to my home state of 18^th and 19^th century. When I got to know that, how distinct identities like Rajput, Arain( gardeners), Gujjar and Jat played an immensely important role in defining one’s social existence(even more than Shia or Sunni until recently) in Pakistan, I witnessed and felt the vastness and limitless expanse of the power of history.

More so, when I see my Pakistani friends using words like ‘Satyanash(destruction of truth in a very metaphysical sense; the word is a common usage among Indians)’, ‘Bharam’, ‘Lakshmi’, ‘Sadhu’, ‘Maharaj’, ‘Nach na jane angan tedha’, for a moment I am transported back to ancient India when Indian philosophy and logic were evolving through the great metaphysical tradition of Shastrartha. Some of them often give the smoke and fire analogy (the one which was originally given by the Naiyaikas in their syllogism.  I am absolutely amazed at the beauty and influence of the forces of history and culture.  The way my Pakistani friends use these words is very natural, casual, and unaware as if they have been using them for centuries without any religious or ideological qualms. It looks as if a typical middle class Hindu house wife is grudging about her mundane and boring routine.

These words like ‘Bharam’, ‘Satyanass’, ‘lakshmi’  and expressions like ‘nach na jane angan tedha’ have their roots in the linguistic theories and epistemology of  great Indian metaphysical schools. The words like ‘Bharam’ have their intrinsic origins in Vedanta and Upnishads. It literally means an illusion so it was a very important concept in Indian cosmology and theories of error. According to Vedanta, the whole cosmos is a ‘Bhrama’ which humans have due to beginning less ignorance.  ‘Laksmi’ was a very important concept in Madhva Vedanta. It literally means wife of lord Vishnu(One of Hindu trinity of gods) and metaphorically means wealth. The entity of Laksmi also assumes great significance in Tantrik literature. It’s not just strange but quite amusing and relaxing to see a burqa clad girl uttering these words in a very light manner. It gives some respite to the mind which has become used to Wahabi and Salafist violence on the local culture and traditions.

These words, in course of time came to be absorbed in the normal and casual conversations of Indian masses because of the strong philosophical impact of these religio-metaphysical traditions and intellectual movements had on the psyche of an ordinary Indian. These linguistic off-shoots are very symbolic and convey deep meanings and findings which lie in the domain of evolutionary psychology.

Once my Pathan tiger Rafiullah told me about the Sikh and Hindu temples of Afghanistan, then I met the times of silk route and  Ranjit singh . when, I was told about the tribal code of honor, I felt as if I was meeting the tribes of Ambhi, Oxydrokoi who gave fierce resistance to Alexander. For a moment I could imagine how grammarian Panini had composed Ashtadhyayi Vyakarana in the snowy mountains of Kabul. I could also see the Buddhist caravans spreading Buddhism and building monasteries in Gandhara.

These religio-metaphysical influences have had a tremendous impact on the psyche of people living in the subcontinent and even on the minds of people living in places as far as Afghanistan. These influences impacted the sub-conscious, shaped and  defined the social, cultural and political attitudes of people. Even now the effects of these influences can be felt in very amusing and interesting ways for instance, the Indian family killer soap ‘Kyonki Saas bhi kabhi Bahu thi’ was immensely popular in Afghanistan.  Rafi told me that the mothers would stop cooking when that serial was telecasted. Even the ordinary recruits of Taliban enjoyed the serial in their private moments. It’s absolutely surprising that a serial depicting a typical Hindu Gujrati family culture was so popular among traditional Pashtun mothers and sisters. My cool post-modern JNU and Stephanian classmates could never ‘connect’ with these soaps. This kind of ‘connect’ has its roots at a very deep, subtle and subconscious level. This happens when a subconscious is a result of long religious, cultural and philosophical tradition of 1000s of years.  All bollywood movies of Amitabh Bachchan, Ajay Devgan(who is known as Haji Jogan in Afghanistan) are very popular in Afghanistan.

When I came here I found it much natural, comfortable and easy to make friends with Pakistanis, Afghans rather than my own country men who came from extreme south Indian states like Tamil Nadu or extreme North-eastern states like Nagaland, Manipur etc.

My next encounter with history happened when my Kazakh friend Romanbek mentioned proudly about ‘Baboor’ and his achievements. So far I thought that Babur would be useful for a young student form Bihar coming to Delhi to prepare for civil service exam. I could actually feel myself with the Mughal armies, trotting with their, begs and Mirzas. In my friend’s horsemanship I could visualize the fierce Huns who invaded India and converted to Shaivism and can still be found among the rajputs. When he asked me to play ‘Dost Dost Na Raha’, ‘Jimi Jimi’ and danced for hours with his vodka to the mesmerizing music of that song, Rajkapur and the cold war days of Indo-soviet friendship showered on my poetic self a surreal bliss.

So, Cornell, I thank you for introducing me to my roots, culture and history in the most amusing, serene and enlightening manner. Now, I feel that I am better prepared to think about and address the concerns of political conflicts, religious conflicts and terrorism in South-Asia.

American Fly and the Bottomless Pit

                                   American Fly and the Bottomless Pit

Back in 1970s my dad and his friends often talked about Ahmad Zahir and his Elvis styled songs which blended east and west in a very seductive, romantic and mellifluous way. They often talked about Daud Khan and the leftwing radicals, active in the Kabul of seventies.  Feroz khan with his macho looks and romance with Hema Mailini in the song ‘Kya khoob lagti ho’ made Afghanistan look like some kind of fairy tale land for Indians. Then in the year 1998 I was discussing about Gulbaddin Hikmatyar with my over-enthusiastic uncle serving for Indian Government, whom everyone in his office called current affairs commissioner who stopped aging after Vietnam war. Even then the things did not seem out of control. They looked pretty much manageable.

In my undergrad I was flaunting my knowledge about Karzai and his local government (all puns intended) to fish-eyed and mystic Bengali beauty of my college debating society. But off late I have known and heard a few things which have, kind of broken this chain, this chain of perceiving and discussing Afghanistan as a land of horse-riding adventurer Pashtuns, a land of Ustad Nash-e Naas( legendary Pashto singer), beauty, sulas( roasted, smoky meat)  and a zone of geopolitical thrills, which could be discussed either in order to impress your younger cousins or to pass civil service exams.

Things which I have known off-late and realized about Afghanistan are indicative of finally catapulting a country and society back into the primitive middle ages of 10^th century. There are abundant signs of systematically depriving the nation and society of all, what we address as modern, secular and vibrant and, unveiling of the black mist of bigotry and violence over a vast expanse of land, which was once a cradle of Aryan civilization. This is the final stage of this anti-evolutionary process and, if it is not stopped now, the soul of the proud Pathan will never be able to come back to life.

The U.S intervention of ten years, on whatever pretext, it was, in some way and at some stage did claim and try to create a modern, workable, secular, tolerant and democratic governance structure in Afghanistan. Alongside the drone attacks and counter insurgency operations various initiatives were undertaken like streamlining local government in Marjah, development work done by India in the field of construction, transportation etc. But today it seems that things have come back to square one. The hatred emanating from the fumes of drone attacks, providing strong legitimacy to Taliban completely dominates the public mental landscape.

This essay explores the causes of these failures and in the end it proposes an alternate strategy to save a nation and society. The first and foremost cause of this failure lies in the insufficient and distorted  understanding and, that insufficient understanding , rather, I would say distorted perception, informing all the strategy and policy decisions.  Since the intervention was done in the wake of 9/11 attacks to crush the Taliban regime, the whole problem was perceived through the narrow, microscopic lens of religious fundamentalism and terrorism emanating from highly exclusivist and militant strain of Islam.

But, the whole issue is not just ten years old and it is not just about religion. If we go into an in depth inquiry, the history of region spanning over 2000 years and the social structures formed as a consequence of that historical process have an extremely important role in shaping, defining and understanding of the whole issue or ‘the so-called problem’(it may not be one and it could just be a matter of wrong perception, creating all the problems).

Hence, this issue has several facets pertaining to the societal and the tribal structures in the region. For a moment, one must keep the lens of religious fundamentalism aside and understand the local political dynamics in terms of different tribes and their relationships. The entire region (which for this essay’s purpose includes KPK( Khyber Pankhtunkhwa), Waziristan, Swat valley and the present Afghanistan) is full of several ethnicities and tribes. There are Pashtuns, Hazaras, Uzbeks and Tajiks. The internal societal structure of these different ethnicities is tribal in nature. This tribal character has dominated the socio-political existence in the region since ages. Even before the advent of Islam the tribal character dominated the socio-political existence. Even among pashtuns there are several clans and tribes like Waziris, Mahsoods, Sherzads, Yusufzais, Durranis etc. In that social set-up wars and feuds between these tribes were and still are a very dominant phenomenon. The tribal identity takes precedence over the religious identity. So the whole question is about the nature and the role of these inter-tribal relationships and the socio-political attitudes of these different tribes. It is actually the question of the rights and representation of these different tribes and ethnicities. To lay the foundation of a democratic and secular state these dynamics need to be understood, appreciated and accommodated in state formation. The right cognition of these tribal dynamics and the stakes involved in this setup would help one diffuse all the conflicts and come out with just and efficient power-sharing structures and mechanisms. Blind imposition of western models of democracy with complete disregard to tribal social and religious customs or rather coefficients (I use the word coefficient because these factors are all pervading in nature and act exactly as coefficients, at least for the policy makers) will always and inevitably lead to such bloody mess.

The whole situation resembles the classic example given by great philosopher Wittgenstein. He talks of a situation in which there is a fly and there is a bottomless pit. The fly wants to get out of the pit but she is stuck in the middle of it and taking circles around the pit. Just like that fly world community and the U.S have confined their vision and cognitive faculties to just one way of thinking. Like that fly who does not look up or down to get out, the U.S has fixated itself to look at the problem only from the lens of religious fundamentalism and terrorism emanating from that.

As a result, we have more drones every year physically locating the Talibs and dropping bombs with complete disregard to the more important concerns like the tribal code of honor and other customs. It is the tribal code of honor which fetches more suicide bombers (as they are told that they have to take revenge to follow the tribal code of honor) not any fervor, passion for any religious glory or heaven.  Similarly, Taliban is an ideology which is either creating a new identity or boosting the prestige and social image of religious identity by monopolizing power through widespread use of violence, deviously seeking its legitimacy in scriptures. Physically isolating them and exterminating them through advanced technology and weaponry has definitely produced some amazing results in terms of number of death counts of suspected Taliban and Al Quaida terrorists but the absence of strategy to deal with the ideological spread and rootedness of religious extremism has almost nullified the progress achieved so far. A systematic effort to have a head-on collision in the ideological battleground is an urgent requirement. This may involve initiatives like harnessing the emotions and strengths associated with other non-religious and dominant identities like Pashtun identity (as an expression of specific cultural and social existence). It could also involve harnessing and promoting the liberal and modern strains and models of Islamic societies and religious system (like the ones we have in Malaysia, Indonesia,  Sufism etc) as an alternative to the existing wahabi/salafist model. The people need to realize that before the advent of Wahabi Islam they had developed their own religious way of life based on harmony with local culture, climate and social requirements. So the Al quaida model of religion needs to be projected as a cultural imposter which should be thrown out and the original should be brought back.

b)Role of Foreign Islamic Groups: Traditionally, Pathans have been a fiercely secular society. Their affection and loyalty for their specific cultural, national and social existence has always held sway over role which religion has played in shaping their present identities. Badshah Khan’s party Khudai Khidmatgar(Red shirts)  was always against the partition of India. They wanted to join the Republic of India. Their loyalties were with the secular ethos of Congress party, not with the exclusivist two-nation theory of Muslim league based on religious bigotry. Even in medieval ages Pathans like Hakim Khan Sur have fought with Maharana Pratap ( king of Mewar, India) against the Mughal emperor Akbar. Pathans, due to their marshal nature and fighting abilities were recruited and brought in droves by Rajput kings of Rajasthan(India). They even inter-married with Rajputs. For them the first loyalty is for the salt, their home land not for the religion.

Hence, in the present scenario the strategy needs to differentiate between the foreign groups like Al Quaida, drawing fighters from all over the world, and local Pashtun people. These foreigners have spread the Wahabi  and Salafist Islam which stipulates things like closure of school for girls, ban on music and inhuman punishments like public stoning of women. This has completely killed the local culture which thrived on love, harmony, diversity and music. We need to differentiate between the locals and foreigners. Al-Quaida operatives have taken refuge and tribal code of honor stipulates that one must protect asylum seekers even at the cost of his own life. These foreign groups have utilized their stay to propagate staunch versions of Islam among the illiterate and innocent local people. The traditional Jirgas have been destroyed. The whole traditional fabric of socio-political existence which revolved around Jirgas have been shattered. The ‘counter-insurgency’ strategy has always tried to paint the entire population with the same brush. These, thoughtless military operations provide more legitimacy to the foreign groups and their Hippocratic cries of ‘Islam in danger’.

c) Battleground of  Intelligence agencies: This geo-political wound of Afghanistan has been dealt in the most immature, immoral, selfish and crude way, so far. Afghan territories have become a battleground for secret services and intelligence agencies. There has been a complete dearth of sophisticated diplomatic efforts. Even issues like civil wars in Seirra Leone, Somalia, military coup in Fiji have been dealt in better and more refined ways. Zahid Hussain in his masterpiece ‘Scorpion’s Tail’ mentions how Pak military, ISI and CIA have made a complete mess.  But again, the main players  have always been the Pak military and ISI in nurturing all the militant groups like haqqani networks, hakimullah mehsoods, Fazlullahs etc. to gain ‘strategic depth’ in Afghanistan. They have all turned into Frankenstein’s  monster now. Two neighboring nations with highly distorted religious ideology informing their foreign policy, have played dukes and drakes in the entire nation, society and economy. They used the nation like a political dump yard and laboratory for their lunatic intelligence doctrines like ‘strategic depth’ etc. These players should be treated like war criminals. The development initiatives have been threatened and hampered with by bombing embassies and killing diplomats. The military and secret service of the neighboring country have dealt in the utmost ruthless and wild manner. What is most shocking is that how could the world community, United Nations leave the fate of millions into the hands of some semi-literate and unsophisticated generals and idiosyncratic mullahs. The history and future of states is made by politicians, thinkers, teachers and diplomats, not by the people in uniform and green robes.

It is high time that we undid the mistakes we did in the past. Although, we cannot compensate for   loses but we can still make efforts for a better future.

In present dispensation any political settlement with Taliban leaders like Hakimullah Mehsood on independent grounds, without any international vigilance and monitoring will make the country a medieval zoo and the situation would not let any normal, modern human being to even enter that territory. Again, the same Pak military and intelligence agency will be calling shots in Afghanistan. The situation is even more dangerous because Pak military and state apparatus after 60 years of existence on the principles of religious bigotry and useless statecraft have become completely clueless. They have no source, no channel to seek legitimacy now. All the previous vents like Kashmir have been exhausted. Those terror groups which were raised by Pak military have trained their guns on the very fabric of Pak society and state. So, now leaving Afghanistan at the hands of Pak will be like handing over a semi-recovered infant to a lunatic, schizophrenic and a bipolar dad. It could lead to worse consequences. Therefore, I propose that the other neighboring countries should be actively involved in any future settlement of Afghanistan.
Some Guiding Principles: 1) The aim should be to create modern, secular, politically stable and economically vibrant Afghanistan which seeks to be the part of world community through the smooth process of cultural and economic globalization.

2) The governance structure and the model of democracy should give due cognizance to religious, tribal, cultural and social sentiments. The attempt should be to secure maximum political and economic development of different ethnicities, tribes, keeping in mind the best possible ‘universe’ of power sharing.

A high-powered steering committee of SAARC nations and Central Asian republics should be actively involved with Afghanistan’s future and the committee should oversee and monitor the political settlement and its progress. These SAARC countries like Sri Lanka, Nepal, India, Bangladesh etc have faced similar religious, cultural and political conditions. These countries have demonstrated successful and stable models of democracy and market. They can contribute a lot in the development of stable and secular Afghanistan. The role of Generals, spies and mullahs should be minimized and, promptly kept in check and regulated.

With this, I end. I am not very hopeful but, of course I can dream and even the most brutal dictatorships and most violent terror outfits cannot snatch this ability and strength from me. No one take away the power of my dreams and soul.

And, in my dreams, I see my friend Shapoor’s children watching bollywood  movies and studying Hegel from Kabul University. I see my kids talking about Ahmad Zahir once again. I see myself visiting Kabul in a car without visa and without a bullet proof vest.