Whispers Forum

I agree with Anshumali (WIC, Sept 1).The US failed to see through the Talibans gameplan after ruling Afghanistan for two decades. Return of Talibans to power after 20-year proxy rule by the US and its NATO allies, is a collective failure of their foreign policies.
The elected Ashraf Ghani government was kept aloof by the US and its allies while carrying on negotiations with the Talibans. On the contrary, the Ashraf Ghani regime was forced by the US to hold talks with the Taliban for a power-sharing arrangement along with the release of 7,000 Talibani prisoners (read as ferocious fighters) captured in the past. This merely reinforced the nuisance value of the Talibans.
The situation in India’s neighbourhood is explosive, almost changing by the hour, ready to reach the flashpoint anytime. Pakistan seems determined to create mischief to add to India’s discomfiture. The turmoil has not ended. Situation in Jammu & Kashmir, would remain explosive due to infiltration of Pakistan- sponsored terrorists. Peace in India, Pakistan, Iran, Central Asian republics will be adversely impacted leading to a change in geo-political situation in the region.
The USSR, China is waiting to accord recognition to the ‘rogue’ regime that is not democratically elected but took over Afghanistan by force. The USSR and China will be competing with each other in capturing the mineral resources like Lithium, gold, iron, copper, lead, zinc among others.
India is in a catch-22 situation. It cannot and should not trust the Talibans, let alone accord recognition to the new regime, which will be tilted towards Russia, China and Pakistan.
A K Saxena (A former civil servant)

The Afghanistan images in media, the gut-wrenching stories of death, devastation, despair and a distress sense of helplessness evoke an eerie feeling of déjà vu — one has been down this road 20 years ago. The US’ Afghanistan withdrawal is also an unforced foreign policy error of possibly historic proportions that could have been avoided had the US kept a small permanent military presence in the country so long as the Taliban and Al Qaeda remained active. It’s a blunder that will most harshly be felt by the Afghan people and U.S. counterterrorism interests as also several other countries including India.
Anshumali

Consistently increasing fuel prices have pushed inflation up in the country in the past few months. This is having a detrimental effect on financially strained households to the extent that they were cutting back expenditures on essentials such as health and groceries in order to pay for fuel. It is an indirect tax on a commodity consumed by both the rich and the poor, so the relative burden on the poor is more because the tax is not calculated based on the income of the buyer; it's a regressive tax. It is also leading to an inflationary impact by feeding to the cost of everything from food to steel, cement and fertilisers through increased cost of logistics for transportation again, in a way, a kind of additional tax on everybody.
Pramod Bhatt