Daily Times

What is the Indian Good Samaritan doing in Afghanistan? Indians have entered the Afghan fray not to help but to damage. If the above fact is correctly understood then all pieces of jigsaw puzzle fall in place. Indians had cultivated past few Afghan governments post 2001 US invasion in a bid to destabilize Pakistan’s restive tribal areas bordering Afghanistan. Their embassy in Kabul and consulates in Herat, Kandahar, Jalalabad and Mazar e Sharif have the main task of sabotage and subversion in neighbouring Pakistan. Had the intention really been to help the strife ridden Afghanistan the Indian presence would have acted as a palliative instead of acting as a nostrum that creates further pain.

Indians cleverly dressed their insidious intentions into a pious raiment of friendly help to a war torn country but the real intentions were to muddy the waters of the fratricidal Afghan cesspool at an opportune time. The Indian Afghan project was launched by Ajit Duval, their long serving National Security Advisor, who championed the “death by thousand cuts” strategy to damage truculent neighbours. Pakistan’s troubled ex tribal areas presented refractory tribes as easy cannon fodder for the subversion efforts of Duval that spared no effort to stir up trouble through proxies like TTP and IS. Having embroiled Pakistan Army with TTP the next target were Afghan Taliban who were singled out for maximum harm.

A peaceful Afghanistan could potentially offer India a possibility of economic linkages through East-West land corridor binding South Asia and Central Asia into an economic union

Indians strategy in Afghanistan was based on targeting Afghan Taliban and cultivating Afghan government at Kabul with a view to create a permanent wedge between the two belligerents. The truth of promoting constant strife was protected by a body guard of lies like development initiatives and economic partnership with a war weary Afghan government. By keeping the pot boiling and promoting a constant strife in Afghanistan the Indians were following Duval doctrine of “death by thousand cuts” against Pakistan. They managed to dupe the frazzled sensibilities of US-ISAF combine by dangling the carrot of anti-China pushback and anti-Taliban capacity building of Afghan National Defence and Security Forces for USA-ISAF.

The USA and ISAF combine failed to understand the real motive of Indian strategy grounded in over 2300 years old Chanakyan realpolitik. The Indians using the bait of economic and military aid were biding their time to strike back at an opportune time. That time arrived after President Trump launched his Afghan peace project with a view to disengage militarily from Afghan quagmire as a part of his election campaign promise. Since Indians could not openly challenge that peace process they ramped up their subversion efforts to derail the peace process by arming the Afghan National forces to the teeth and encouraging them to attack Taliban with renewed vigour. At a time therefore when the Indians were expected to act with circumspection in the interest of a peace dividend they actually went berserk.

Modi’s anti Muslim and anti-Pakistan rancor gave a carteblanche to Ajit Duval to act as a classic peace spoiler. He set about that task with remarkable alacrity. Though India had entered into a formal strategic military alliance with Afghanistan in October 2011 it has been providing economic and military aid since 2001. Out a total of $3billion aid the major portion went for military training, advisory and hardware support. Indians were allowed to deploy 148 Indo Tibetan Border Patrol troops in Afghanistan to protect their installations. 7164 Afghan army and intelligence personnel have been trained from 2006 to 2020 in India, Three groups of twenty Afghan National Army lady officers have also been trained in India since 2017. The military cooperation has intensified in 2020 with 89 personnel (65 officers and 25 soldiers) getting training in India. 29 officers belonging to Afghan intelligence agency NDS are being currently trained in India by Indian intelligence agency RAW.

On hardware front 285 military vehicles, 491 small arms, 20 T 62 tanks with ammunition, 8 MI 35 helicopters have been provided to ANA by Indians. Now with this munificent arming of Afghan National Army and close mentoring of their intelligence agency NDS the Indians are playing a deadly game stoking the embers of internecine conflict ever anew. A negatively motivated NDS and an aggressively charged and armed Afghan Army acts as an instrument of violence in the witches brew of the Afghan conflict. Taliban have evinced interest in peace but their peace overtures are not being reciprocated properly due to the main peace spoiler sitting pretty in Afghanistan i.e India.

Afghanistan’s neighbours, USA and international community has reached a rare consensus on the need for a lasting peace in Afghanistan by allowing Afghans themselves to decide on the future form of government and power sharing arrangements amongst all stakeholders. That is a surest recipe for countering the menace of terrorism for which ostensible reason UN led US-ISAF mission entered Afghanistan. India is the only country whose interests are not being served by the impending peace. In the past India has armed the Afghan forces as well as terrorist entities like TTP, and IS to act against Taliban. Indian RAW in accordance with Duval strategy actively helped Afghan National Army and NDS to identify and target Taliban fighters. Many IS terrorists traced back to Kerala and Tamil Nadu were brought back to Afghanistan by Ajit Duval.

Now when the eyes of entire world community are fixed on intra Afghan talks the odd man out is India bent upon playing the role of a spoiler. India already has blood of both Taliban and several innocent Afghan National Army fighters on its hands due to its Machiavellian promotion of fratricidal conflict between two rival Afghan factions. If India were not in the throes of the Hindutva hate creed its leadership would easily have divined the advantages of peace dividends that the Afghan peace offers. A peaceful Afghanistan could potentially offer India a possibility of economic linkages through East-West land corridorbinding South Asia and Central Asia into an economic union. According to a South Asian Voices research study the trade potential between Pakistan and India is $37 billion that can be further boosted if Indian strategy of destabilization of the region changes. But the above will only happen if India stops being a spoiler in Afghanistan.

(The writer is a security and defence analyst and a PhD scholar;rwjanj@hotmail.com)