Revival of Golden Crescent.(updated)

BY K.P PASWAN.

Modern Afghanistan is the epicenter of Golden Crescent, means harvesting poppy and other habit-forming production of narcotics. Most of the people inhabiting the Golden Crescent and narcotics  are dangerous and menace to human race. Human life does not matter much, and they are often engaged in wanton killing of their rivals and even men in uniform, meant for enforcing laws are not spared. 

INVASION. Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in late 1970 led to the revival of Golden Crescent, which before the invasion was a low-key business with high profit. Afghanistan being a cold and mountainous region has never been self-sufficient in agriculture products. The country is rich in fruit production which is a source of livelihood. They, somehow managed to survive, but needed money to purchase essentials and this led to the emergence of a substantial number of land holders to opt for opium harvesting. With the fall of monarchy, a vacuum was created for the emergence of a central authority. And politician, everywhere in this world, needs lot of money to win even a municipal election. Soviet invasion, led Western powers to bring their deadly weapons to fight the Communists and the Opium growers realized the potential of these weapons to serve their nefarious activities.

 FORBIDDEN LAND. Certain areas of Afghanistan in and around Kandahar, are dubbed as Golden Crescent’ most shameful neighborhood, It was feared that under a civil Govt  Afghanistan would become dumping ground for drug addicts, so stringent laws were made to crush the offenders, who are mostly opium cultivators, Yet after the entry of Taliban, the drug laws were largely forgotten by the international and the Afghan press until earlier this year, when a report published by the Americans, according to this report,the number of addicts registered  has risen from 17000 in 1980 to more than 200000 in 2015, These figures don’t represent real number of addicts.

 A large number of the addicts are women and school going children. Surprisingly most of the Opium cultivators are not zealots in religion, while sending their children abroad for modern education.. But in Afghanistan, these so-called liberals are not only zealots, but enjoy killing Shias, and people belonging to other faiths. Afghanistan cannot become a Tourist attraction because except fanatics and lunatics, there are no places worth seeing. So Afghanistan during a brief period of Taliban’s rule became a leading exporter of drug to Africa and even the USA, eclipsing the Latin American drug cartels

 TRIBES. Afghanistan is inhabited by more than 25 tribes from time immemorial. The Tajiks, Uzbek and Pushto can be recognized by their names and face, other tribes cannot be recognized even by their face unless they introduce themselves.It is lucrative trade cum harvesting of opium that to some extent bind them together.Afghanistan can afford to lose thousands of its people in the name of protecting religion, but the Western nations and US cannot afford to lose even a single soldier, while fighting these lunatics.  Educated among them present themselves as Afghan nationalists, who do not favor a federalist solution to the country’s sectarian problems and all the tribes are eager for provincial election.

POLITICS. Afghanistan was always a failed state and could fail again. Its politics consists of drug lords fighting over drugs. The drug lords also stir up tribal animosity as a tool to recruit more militiamen .  The country was being dominated by two stalwarts Ashraf Ghani, an economist trained in Western country and Dr Abdulla Abdulla, an Eye Surgeon by profession. They belong to Pushtu and Tajik community respectively and wanted to enforce modern jurisprudence, but was hard in a nation where suicide bombers kill judges and drug lords grow rich from the Poppy trade.

Now whole of Afghanistan has been taken over by the Taliban. There is nothing that may prevent Talibans from taking actions against the Drug lords as Taliban cannot survive without drug money.

 Most Afghans are terrified of Taliban, but trust in govt was low too. The ordinary Afghans will not defend the Govt, because they see the state, prisoner of drug lords. So the country is entering dangerous water. Before Taliban take over, ethnic dimension to the election with Dr Abdulla seen as a Tajik and Mr Ghani as Pashto  forced an underlying tension within Afghan society, close to the surface. Afghans often vote in block according to the dictate of local Tribal chiefs and drug lords so irregularities are impossible to detect.

REASONS. It is not difficult to find the reasons for revival of Golden Triangle. Being a landlocked country, Afghanistan remained cut off from the rest of the world, except during the British period of colonial rule in India. Complete isolation resulted in economic stagnation. Small local chiefs made their ways to India by causing mayhem, but we don’t find any attempts by these local chiefs taking interest in welfare measures.

TALIBAN is considered the most ruthless and trigger-happy terrorists, who cannot flourish without lot of money coupled with patronage Drug lords. The entire Taliban is funded by opium growers. Latest technology for refining Opium products is clandestinely imported from Mexico and  other Latin American countries. Curbing of opium harvest in Afghanistan is impossible without the active support of Pakistan, and China. These two countries will never allow any democratic institutions to flourish in the mountainous country. India has practically little role or no roll at all to play in Afghanistan. Every other day we see, top diplomats, participating in TV debates, advocating presence of Indians in substantial number in Afghanistan to combat the growing influence of Pakistan, this is surprising, as the Taliban’s are no friends of India,some of the important functionaries of the present Afghanistan govt are covertly supporting the Taliban. Indian technocrats engaged in development of various projects are likely to be killed once the purpose of killers is served.

  We have not learned any lesson from Lord Auckland’s handling of Afghan war. Thousands of Indian soldiers were starved to death, but the Colonial power failed to subjugate the tribes engaged in illegal activities. Pakistan Govt wisely entered into an agreement with the narcotics traders of Waziristan, as per this agreement, Tribes were allowed to carry their illegal activities going on, in exchange of promise, not to explode bombs in Pakistan and prevent entry of Talibans. 

We are also fed up with Americans, they won't mind kidnapping Noriega, the former president of Panama, who was leader of drug cartel, next the American punished Mexican drug lord Al Chapo, who besides being a drug king, was notorious for committing atrocities against women, and even the killing of Escarole is attributed to a careful planning devised by the pentagon.In other countries,the Americans invoke human rights to support the drug peddlers.

HUMILIATING RETREAT. Russia has not forgotten hasty retreat from Afghanistan when Al-Qaeda, with the help of US and the Western powers fought the Russians and drove them away. Taliban have the most sophisticated weapons supplied by Russia, while for financial support, it is dependent upon the drug lords and Pakistan. Difficult terrain, mountain caves and vast deserts make it impossible for the western forces to act against Taliban in effective manner. 

Lord Auckland’s Afghan war was a monumental failure as the local tribes acted as Clan against the British, and they are acting with same zeal against the Americans. There are reasons to believe that the Russians are offering money to the Taliban fighters’  to kill the Americans. This has been called as Bounty Killing. Afghan’s economy is completely dependent upon Pakistan.

CONCLUSION. America’s withdrawal from Afghanistan even in a phased manner is going to pave way for the rule of dreaded Taliban and above all revival of Golden Crescent. For India, this is a warning in advance for which we are least prepared.