Author: B.Raman
Publication: Sri Lanka Guardian.org
Date: March 4, 2010
URL: http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2010/03/indiapakistan-afghanistan-us.html
Here are my answers to four questions e-mailed
to me on March 3, 2010, by a correspondent of the "Washington Post":
Question: Is the Indian government growing
increasingly frustrated over the Obama administration's policy of reconciliation
with the so called good Taliban? And why or how will this impact India and
U.S. relations? What position does this put India in?
Answer: "Frustrated" is not the word. India is increasingly concerned
over the US belief that there are good fundamentalists and bad fundamentalists
and that it can do business with the good fundamentalists and bring them into
the mainstream. India looks upon the "war" against the Taliban and
Al Qaeda in Afghanistan as directed not only against these organisations,
but also against their ideology of religious obscurantism by projecting before
the Afghan people the ideas of a secular and liberal democratic society. If
it makes a deal with the so-called good Taliban even if they do not give up
their medieval ideas, the US will be admitting beforehand that it has lost
the ideological battle. It will not be good for Afghanistan and other Muslim
countries. And it will not be good for India, which has the second largest
Muslim community in the world.
Question: Is India worried that Pakistan is
getting too strong b/c the U.S. is courting Pakistan in its fight? And why
is this a concern to India ie - despite Mumbai, despite everything, is there
a growing feeling in Delhi that Pakistan will hoodwink the world?
Answer: India is worried over the US readiness to close its eyes to Pakistan's
use of terrorism against India so long as Pakistan acts against terrorism
directed against the US and helps the US in preventing another 9/11 in the
US homeland. Pakistan is confident that so long as it helps the US against
the Taliban and Al Qaeda it does not have to fear any adverse consequences
from its continued use of terrorism against India. It is this confidence which
should explain its inaction against the Lashkar-e-Toiba and other Punjabi
terrorist organisations whose activities are directed against India. Pakistan
has been hoodwinking the US not today, but for the last 30 years ever since
it started using terrorism against India. It will continue to hoodwink the
world brazenly so long it has the confidence that no action will be taken
against it.
Question: Is Afghanistan the new Kashmir,
a place India and Pakistan are fighting it out?
Answer: In Kashmir, India is resisting Pakistani attempts since 1989 to annex
Indian territory through a proxy war using terrorist organisations trained
in Pakistan. In Afghanistan, India has been resisting Pakistani efforts to
exclude it from playing its due role as a historic ally of Afghanistan and
as a well-wisher of the Afghan people who has been trying to help them convert
their country into a modern democratic state. In Kashmir, it is a confrontation
over territory which belongs to India. In Afghanistan it is a political and
ideological confrontation.
Question: How big is India's intelligence
presense in Afghanistan - is it robust? Is it as big as Pakistan claims? Does
anyone know?
Answer: I would not know whether India has an intelligence presence in Afghanistan
and, if so, how big is it.
- The writer is Additional Secretary (retd),
Cabinet Secretariat, Govt. of India, New Delhi, and, presently, Director,
Institute For Topical Studies, Chennai.
