US-Europe ignoring India's role in Afghanistan to appease Pak

I / Washington February 09, 2010, 10:05 IST

United States along with other European countries are ignoring India's role in Afghanistan in their effort to appease Pakistan, a prominent American foreign policy magazine has said.

Noting that from New Delhi's perspective, "Af-Pak" debate was all about the "Pak", the prestigious 'Foreign Policy' in its latest issue said that in the recently held London conference on Afghanistan, India was the lone voice of dissent.

It was the only country which argued that there can be no distinction between a good and a bad Taliban, wrote Kapil Komireddi, in an article titled "Indian Motion" published in Foreign Policy.

"As representatives from more than 60 countries convened at the historic Lancaster House, New Delhi's representative to the summit, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna, emphasised to his British counterpart that it would be a monumental folly, at this juncture, to make a distinction "between a good Taliban and a bad Taliban" or to legitimise the former through reaching out," it said.

From India's perspective, he said, because the Taliban was originally an extension of Pakistan's intelligence agency and because it has been used by Islamabad to mount attacks against India, there can be no "good Taliban".

Besides, the wild popularity of Indian cinema and TV shows in Afghanistan means that India enjoys a soft-power edge over every other country currently engaged there.

Unsurprisingly, in the most recent opinion poll, India emerged with the highest favorability rating of any country involved in Afghanistan: 74 per cent, the article said.

"Yet in the endless debates focusing on Afghanistan, India's role in the region had usually been ignored by United States and Europe - often deliberately, as New Delhi was quick to point out, in order to appease Pakistan," Komireddi argued.

"Washington was keenly aware of the benefits that New Delhi brings to Afghanistan. But so far it has been wary of openly embracing India as a partner," he said.

India, the only stable secular democracy in the region he noted, was being actively prevented from helping in Afghanistan in order to appease the Pakistani regime, lest it re-enact the carnage that was visited upon Mumbai in 2008 and the Indian Embassy in Kabul in 2008 and 2009.

"Which raises the question: Is the US objective in Afghanistan to oust the Taliban, or is it to secure the country for Pakistan? To New Delhi, the answer looks increasingly like the latter," the author said.