For more than two decades, the Taliban labelled India as an enemy to humanity, a Hindu “kafir” state supporting foreign agendas in Kabul. Now the same Taliban leadership is stepping into New Delhi with open arms and open palms, asking for funds, trade routes, wheat and political space. It is an amazing reversal on the part of the Taliban to see how swiftly ideology softens up once their existence is at stake. Nothing exemplifies it better than the Bamiyan incident when the Taliban destroyed the Buddha statues as a foray against an “un-Islamic” legacy tied to Buddhist and Hindu culture. Today, they are shamelessly requesting a country which displays itself as the global guardian of the same heritage that the Taliban once tried to erase. There is no ideological understanding here but only transactional fears. When economics enters the room, then the memory of smashed statues and civilizational rhetoric quietly exits.
The mockery further extends when one recalls how proudly the Taliban condemned the former Afghan regime as an “Indian string-puppet.” Indian’s embassies and consulates were described as RAW satellite outposts. Conspiracies were hatched by the Taliban everywhere that anything linked to New Delhi has a toxic influence. In a bitter twist, today the Taliban bank on the same India it once maligned. In one swift turn, New Delhi’s status has shifted from alleged puppeteer to critical partner and indispensable lifeline for humanitarian assistance, food procurements and regional access for the trade corridors. It happened not because of any ideological evolution within the Taliban, but rather due to the simple fact that their narrative collapsed the moment governance demanded pragmatism.
Fanatic Taliban who once destroyed Buddhas and demonised Hindus are now looking for refuge in the same corridors it once destroyed.
This collapse is more prominent in their relations with the Islamic Republic of Pakistan. The Taliban invokes “Islamic brotherhood,” but when it comes to the containment of TTP, repatriation of Afghan refugees and the Durand Line, the Taliban never rushed to fix relations with its Muslim neighbour. They looked toward the non-Muslim regime in India, which they once condemned. Taliban’s regime is willing to forego Pakistan’s security apprehensions over their unethical relations with India, having vested interests. For several years, the Taliban criticised the working mechanisms of Western financial institutions and labelled them as apparatuses of exploitation. Now the same Taliban has reached out to India for the opening of banking networks and other development funding projects, which they once condemned as “kafir.” Once ideology contradicts the economic needs to run the state machinery, then it silently becomes precedent.
These contradictions and hypocrisy have become the trade mark of the Taliban regime. This selective flexibility of the Taliban’s polices is evident from their behaviour that every restriction imposed at home is defended as absolute Sharia, like there will be no girls’ education beyond primary, no women’s work, no media freedom or basic human rights. Whereas, outside the Afghanistan territory, they conduct themselves in a completely changed manner, which is full of diplomatic conversations, economic negotiations and strategic concessions. Taliban’s inflexibility is for domestic consumption only, while their flexibility is for foreign spectators who hold the means to foreign currency flow and recognition.
Taliban’s unexpected silence on Palestine and Kashmir issues is also contradictory to their insurgency years, where fighters and clerics promoted “jihad” in Kashmir and condemned the Indian’s atrocities on Kashmiri Muslims. Now, during the latest official visits of the Taliban’s top leadership to Delhi, there was no mention of the Indian army’s brutalities and inhuman behaviour in occupied Kashmir. The Taliban have turned a blind eye and a deaf ear to every ideological entitlement they made previously as sacred.
Pakistan has been their saviour for decades, whether it be the Russian or the US-led NATO invasion. Pakistan has always shown brotherhood and opened its border for millions of Afghan refugees in spite of economic crunch at home. Pakistan even supported the interim regime of the Taliban by requesting the US to unfreeze the Afghan government assets and provide a free trade corridor for the well-being of the Afghan people. But unfortunately, the Taliban became Indian’s proxy and continues to be a security dilemma for Pakistan as well as for the region. Taliban refused to recognise the Durand Line with Pakistan, which is an internationally recognised border. Pakistan was helping the Afghan people in terms of facilitating their trade, educating Afghan youth, and providing critical medical facilities through the same border which the Taliban forced Pakistan to shut down. It happened only because Pakistan was assisting the Afghan nation in terms of kindness, while the Taliban wanted it in terms of cash for their own benefit, which they are receiving from India.
Taliban are the mercenaries who kill people for money (dollars), resources and have no linkage with Islamic values. Taliban’s leaning towards India eventually exposes that it’s a regime shaped less by religion than by an instinct for absolute existence. While interacting with countries like Pakistan or Western countries, the Taliban hush themself up in the clothing of Islamic faith, harmony and ideology. Nevertheless, when it comes to a diplomatic handshake with India, the rhetoric is left without any ritual. Instead of moral transparency, the Taliban regime behaves like a fragile and isolated regime that is ready to overlook its past adversaries, civilizational narratives and quit the slogans chanted in the past just to get a chance at political breathing room. This is the factual account behind the melting snow in Taliban-India relations. Fanatic Taliban who once destroyed Buddhas and demonised Hindus are now looking for refuge in the same corridors it once destroyed.
The writer is a researcher.