Sharda Lal
Following the Taliban takeover of Kabul on August 15, 2021 and total withdrawal of US forces from Afghanistan by August 31, 2021, the international community and more particularly the Government of India have found a strong reason to feel extremely worried. Many senior Taliban leaders have remained based in Pakistan, where their families live, they own property and businesses, and injured fighters receive medical care. Taliban, the group found responsible for killing tens of thousands of Afghans, the group enforcing draconian restrictions on human rights in the name of Sharia, has come to power in Afghanistan. The developments have proved beyond doubt that the virtual defeat of USSR in Feb. 1989 and the USA in August 2021 at the hands of the Afghans, with Pakistan serving as a conduit all these years for financial assistance, besides supply of arms and ammunitions from the rival superpowers, etc. and military training to the resistance groups, especially the Taliban, on its soil, though covertly, have facilitated a stronger foothold for Pakistan in the politics of Afghanistan. Therefore, the emergence of Taliban led Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan has no longer remained an exclusively internal matter of that country.
In the current scenario, Pakistan appears to be hell-bent upon creating every possible opportunity to scuttle the Indian sphere of influence in international relationships and stoke unrest in Jammu and Kashmir so that the same is utilized to its advantage at every platform. All successive governments in Pakistan, since its formation, have remained obsessed with the two pronged strategy of making India bleed by inflicting a thousand cuts upon her in different ways and engaging her in armed conflict over Kashmir, either through insurgency or through open war. Humiliating defeats at the hands of India in the four wars (1947, 1965, 1971 and 1999) initiated by Pakistan, have neither deterred Pakistan nor taught it any lesson to mend its ways. In the name of religion, Pakistan has remained perpetrating adharma (wickedness) and it is unlikely that in the years to come, it will spare any effort in enticing support of the Talibans, not only for provoking and abetting unrest in Jammu and Kashmir, but also in the entire country. Of greatest concern to India is the risk that the Pakistan-backed militant groups like Lashkar-e-Toiba and Jaish-e-Mohammed, which have a presence in Afghanistan, could gain influence under Taliban dispensation and carry out attacks on Indian targets in Afghanistan or even in India proper.
For the past 70 years, Indian Government has always helped Afghanistan and Afghan people, economically as well as politically. Since 2001, India has provided more than $3 billion in support to Afghanistan in the form of transportation and infrastructure funding, health and humanitarian projects, and institutional capacity-building initiatives-the most of any regional country, but it appears that with the fall of Kabul, the new Taliban government is more than eager to fulfill its ‘obligation’ to repay its debt in favour of the new found friend ‘Pakistan’. Such an inclination of Afghanistan towards Pakistan is not for the first time however. It is reported that even during the 1965 and 1971 Indo-Pak wars, Kabul had lent passive support to Pakistan and facilitated easy mobilization and deployment of forces by Pak along its eastern borders with India.
The challenge to foster stability in Afghanistan would remain vulnerable to spoiler actions by a Pakistan intent on securing its western flank against both separatist threats and its regional rival India. Pakistan views India’s support to Afghanistan with concern and seeks to secure the Taliban’s continued loyalty.
It will be in the Indian interest to take note of the fact that Afghanistan and Pakistan have a long history of tense relations defined by five recurring drivers namely, sovereignty concerns, security interests, geopolitical dynamics, cross-border ties, and connectivity and trade. Elizabeth Threlkeld and Grace Easterly (August, 2021) in ‘Afghanistan-Pakistan Ties and Future Stability in Afghanistan’ predict, “The Afghanistan-Pakistan relationship is likely to further deteriorate, and vitriol on both sides could foreclose on any remaining opportunities to reach a negotiated settlement……given the deeply held grievances on both sides compounded by the ongoing conflict.”
Statements from Pakistan and its efforts of directly meddling with the Afghanistan government’s functioning does aggravate sovereignty-related sensitivities in Afghanistan to the extent that Islamabad is seen as pressuring Kabul on its foreign policy. The fact can’t be overlooked that there are Afghanistan’s leaders or its people, who have suffered tremendously at the hands of the Taliban and who hold Pakistan responsible for enabling the ongoing violence. Many Afghans question why Pakistan maintains its ties to the group and has not done more to pressure the Taliban to reduce violence, though Pakistan denies having that leverage. This suspicious attitude of Afghanis is reflected in the stiff resistance against the Taliban from the Northern Alliance in the Panjsheer area and protests from women groups in Afghanistan demanding human rights.
Taking a holistic view of the prevailing situation and whereas it would be desirable for India to maintain working relationship with different spectra of Afghan people, it is crucial for Indians and Indian governments to remain careful, alert and united against all mechanizations of Pakistan. It needs to be kept in mind that the expansionist Pakistan considers India, an obstacle in Pak-Afghan relations. Pakistan will make every attempt to conspire and resist every effort of India for fostering friendly ties with Afghanistan.
India on her part has always been in favour of maintaining good relations with countries prophesying different faiths, political structures, religions and religious laws. She continued to recognize the Sovereign, Democratic Republic of Bangladesh even after the tragic and cruel assassination of her trusted and closest friend ‘Banga Bandhu’ Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman and his entire family in a military coup on 15 August, 1975. India must continue her policy of friendliness towards the common people of Afghanistan who have, in general, reciprocated this friendly attitude towards India – notwithstanding the terrorist groups.
Going by the long history of integrity of Afghan people and the fate met by USSR and USA armies after years of occupation, the Pakistan army as well won’t be able to continue digging its feet in Afghan soils for long. It would be logical for the Government of India therefore, to find a role amongst the well meaning leading nations of the world to help the Afghan people restore their own humanitarian and democratic governance with a guarantee of no interference by any foreign country in their internal affairs. This must be the priority of India for durable peace in Indian sub-continent.
Follow our WhatsApp channel
