Months after the members of the Taliban regime in Kabul attended a four-day ‘India immersion’ online course offered by the Ministry of External Affairs through IIM Kozhikode, the spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs of India has rebutted the claims suggesting change in Indian approach towards recognizing the Taliban regime in Afghanistan. The course was part of the capacity building assistance through the ITEC (Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation) programme for developing countries, including Afghanistan.
However, it has been seen as a welcome step, as India tries to gain its footprint in Afghanistan post the return of the Taliban regime in August 2021. The emerging contours of the Afghan security environment have monumental implication for India’s own strategic and security environment; therefore, India despite having reservations on the Taliban’s highly exclusionary and repressive governance model have no other option but to engage the Afghan officials. Earlier, through the international organization, Government of India had supplied 50,000 MT of wheat for the people of Afghanistan. The wheat assistance was delivered in multiple consignments. Similarly, India had supplied 500,000 doses of COVAXIN, 13 tons of essential lifesaving medicines and 500 units of winter clothing to Afghanistan in 2022.
Even during the 1999-2001 period of the Taliban regime, it had been involved in humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan due to lack of outright diplomatic outreach to the Taliban. After the devastating earthquake in Afghanistan on May 30, 1998, India continued to send humanitarian assistance to Afghanistan.[i] In 1999, when thousands of Afghan people were displaced from the Shumali plains and Takhar province, 1000 tents, 25,500 blankets, 140 tonnes of food items and 15 tonnes of medicines, medical supplies and medical equipment were despatched by chartered flights.[ii] The outreach was taking place even when the Taliban were able to force President Rabbani and Commander Masood with their forces to retreat from Kabul to the north. India had officially backed the Rabbani government in Afghanistan, despite the fall of Kabul to the Taliban.
Dependence on External Power
Humanitarian Diplomacy as a part of public diplomacy approach has been a constant tool of engagement for India in absence of concrete diplomatic outreach to some of the countries. Indian approach to the development is mainly human-centric, and humanitarian assistance has over a period of time become a component of the development partnership apart from grant-in-aid, cultural partnership, capacity building and technical assistance.
For decades, India’s primary tool of engagement with Afghanistan has been its time tested humanitarian diplomacy either bilaterally or through the UN and related organisations, along with extensive and wide-ranging humanitarian, financial, assistance, undertaking projects related to building infrastructure as well as building human capitals. India's cooperation with Afghanistan has consistently focussed on areas which are of direct benefit to the Afghan people. It has relied on the softer part of the diplomacy primarily for two reasons — India lacks agency and capabilities to act alone in this part of the region, especially after the fall of the Kabul to the Taliban forces, and had historically been dependent on the major powers in its quest for strategic space in Afghanistan. First it was dependent on the Russia for its outreach to the anti-Taliban force Northern Alliance during Taliban regime between 1996-2001. For humanitarian assistance it was dependent on UN and its related organisation.
After the US intervention in Afghanistan in 2001, India had stressed on its soft power diplomacy rather than hard power tools in order to not upset tenuous Afghanistan-US-Pakistan equilibrium in the region. US presence in Afghanistan was the overarching security umbrella under which India’s multiple developmental activities, economic assistance, capacity building and technical assistance projects flourished.
Secondly, the constant change of guard in Afghanistan in the last 4 decades has made the government to government relations a precarious exercise, vulnerable to alienation by one or the other regime. Therefore, India’s humanitarian diplomacy has given it space to engage with the masses of Afghanistan, initially limited to the northern Afghanistan, however, last couple of decades to the other major power centres including southern Afghanistan. India has been able embed its pro-people assistance programmes and economic assistance policy in the larger traditional official diplomacy tools, and over the years the two appear to be part of one broad Indian foreign policy approach.
The Way Ahead
In the Union Budget 2023-24, India has allocated Rs 200 crore to the Ministry of External Affairs for expenditure on grants and loans to Afghanistan. The amount remains unchanged from the last year, and shows India’s willingness to continue with its policy.[iii]
At the same time, India knows there is a limitation to the humanitarian diplomacy in a country where the regime has subdued the democratic ethos of the masses and has a very centralized form of governance. In Afghanistan, where the Taliban regime decides the employment of the aid and assistance, and masses are largely cut off from the process of the decision making and distribution; there are, in all probability, questions on the resource distribution and efficient management of the aid and assistance. Consequentially, there are little political returns to the assistance provided by India when the outcome is severely manipulated.
Secondly, soft power diplomacy can be a complimentary element of the foreign policy and can’t be sole driver of India’s outreach to Afghanistan, if India wants to secure its strategic and security interests. Therefore, sooner or later India will have to take a more accommodative position and provide it little wriggle room to the Afghan Taliban regime. The first step could be re-opening of the Indian embassy in Afghanistan, which could lead to some on ground constructive talks. A welcome move in this direction has been the deployment of a technical team in Indian Embassy in Kabul to closely monitor and coordinate the efforts of various stakeholders for the effective delivery of humanitarian assistance and in continuing of engagement with the Afghan people. Similarly, multi-member Indian team led by MEA Joint Secretary JP Singh met senior members of the Taliban in Kabul last in June 2022.[iv] Similarly, Taliban’s Head of Political Office Suhail Shaheen had last year urged for Indian investment in Afghanistan, and to help build and sustain infrastructure projects in the country. However, progress appears to have been stalled since last year, as India is more and more relying upon the humanitarian aspects of its engagement in Afghanistan.
In the recently concluded SCO summit, Indian Prime Minister shared the concerns of the other member states, when he stated that the well-being of the people of Afghanistan should be the shared concern of every SCO member. He further said humanitarian assistance to Afghan citizens; the formation of an inclusive government; the fight against terrorism and drug trafficking; and ensuring the rights of women, children, and minorities are our shared priorities. However, India can think of achieving these benign and ideal objectives only when it starts engaging with the Taliban regime in Afghanistan.
Endnotes
[i] Annual Report 1998-1999, Ministry of External Affairs, GoI https://mealib.nic.in/?pdf1571?000
[ii] Annual Report 1999-2000, Ministry of External Affairs, GoI https://mea.gov.in/Uploads/PublicationDocs/162_Annual-Report-1999-2000.pdf
[iii] Pia Krishnankutty, Budget 2023: Development aid for war-torn Afghanistan unchanged, cuts for Sri Lanka & Myanmar, The Print, 01 February 2023 https://theprint.in/budget/budget-2023-development-aid-for-war-torn-afghanistan-unchanged-cuts-for-sri-lanka-myanmar/1329970/
[iv]Deployment of a technical team in Embassy of India, Kabul, Ministry of External Affairs, GoI June 23, 2022 https://mea.gov.in/press-releases.htm?dtl/35437/Deployment+of+a+technical+team+in+Embassy+of+India+Kabul
Gaurav Kumar is the Project Leader for the Gallantry Awards Portal project. He has worked as an Associate Fellow and Editorial Assistant at the USI. He has also been associated with National Security Council Secretariat as a researcher.
Uploaded on 01-08-2023
Disclaimer: The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of the organisation that he/she belongs to or of the USI of India.
Author : Gaurav Kumar Dixit,
Category : Strategic Perspectives
Pages : 0 | Price : ₹0.00 | Year of Publication : 2023