Isn’t it ironical that a person like Zalmay Khalilzad who has been throughout a dyed-in-the -wool anti-Taliban should be today masterminding parleys with them as an American envoy for pulling out the US forces from Afghanistan?
It won’t be beer and skittles for the Taliban this time round to run this war-torn country whenever the Yankees leave Afghanistan’s soil. Afghanistan would be much difficult for them to govern as compared to Afghanistan of mid -1990s. Minorities like the Uzbeks, Tajiks, Turkumans and Hazaras are no longer docile as they were in the past. They are now political forces to be reckoned with. They are also not alone now. Turkey and Iran are standing foursquare behind them. The Taliban would be shooting themselves in the foot if they tried to crush them with force as was done by them in the not-too-distant past .
Would the Talibans go it alone or share power with the minorities referred to above?Time alone would answer this question. If the Taliban are far-sighted and prudent enough they would take a lesson from history and follow the principle of live and let live. Governing Afghanistan without taking them into confidence would be well-nigh impossible. These minorities are very much politically conscious today. They would want protection of their culture and language and due share in power in Kabul. If they didn’t raise their voice in the past it was because of the fact that the level of their political consciousness was quite low then. It should also be not forgotten that though Kabul was in the hands of Taliban then , the predominant language spoken in Afghanistan’s capital was Durri, akin to Persian which is their mother tongue and that inculcated in them a sense of belongingness to their country.
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