India has clear strategic interests in Afghanistan but not a clear strategy to pursue them. An independent, sovereign Afghanistan, free of external interference would best serve India’s interests. So would an Afghanistan that is a transit hub between Central Asia and South Asia for shared regional prosperity. Can India bring this about practically? To benefit from such connectivity Afghanistan would have to stabilized under an India-friendly regime. Pakistan’s obsessive search for “strategic depth” in Afghanistan and its corollary of denying us a legitimate role and presence there, constitutes, however, a bigger challenge for India. How do we counter Pakistan?

An Afghanistan in grip of obscurantist religious forces, of the kind represented by the Taliban, is a danger not only to India, but to the entire region. The political, economic, social and religious ideology of the Taliban rejects democracy, individual liberty, pluralism, tolerance of diversity, gender equality, social reform, modernity and globalization. How can India checkmate the Taliban? India’s problem with the Taliban is three-fold. First, the West in its anxiety to quit Afghanistan quickly is willing to politically accommodate the Taliban by giving them eventually a share of power in Kabul. Second, for Pakistan the Afghan Taliban groups are its strategic assets in Afghanistan, as instruments for asserting its influence there at India’s cost. Third, President Karzai, the mainstay of our Afghan policy, is leading the process of reconciliation with the Taliban.

We were initially firmly opposed to any form of accommodation with the Taliban. Our lack of viable options in Afghanistan induced us to accept re-integration but not reconciliation. Now, by supporting “peace and reconciliation” in Afghanistan during PM’s recent visit to Kabul, we have taken a subtle step to modify that position too. Our newly-minted strategic partnership with Afghanistan seems incompatible with President Karzai’s strategic outreach to the Taliban brokered by Pakistan.

Perhaps we feel we will become marginal to unfolding developments in Afghanistan by sticking to our principled position on the Taliban. But then, being marginal to a process leading to unwanted outcomes might be better than becoming complicit with it.

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Published in Economic Times Dated: 20^th May, 2011