Indian role in Afghanistan

President Obama's special envoy for Afghanistan, Marc Grossman, in India last month as part of consultations with Afghanistan's neighbours as well as Saudi Arabia, was inundated by Indian journalists with questions about Pakistan. He reminded them to talk about the US and India, and not to forget that "this is not just about Pakistan, it's about the important role India has to play in supporting the Afghan people."
India of course is obsessed with Pakistan because of old rivalries as well as anxieties about its future role in that country, where it has invested a lot of money, building influence-buying infrastructure projects. It is desperate to gain a strong foothold in the post-war Afghanistan with the help of the US, arguing that Afghanistan is a neighbour with which it has had a long history of good relations. The fact of the matter is that India is not an immediate neighbour of Afghanistan, and the history has undergone violent and radical changes over the last three decades.
Pakistan is unlike any other neighbour of Afghanistan. It shares more than 2,700-kilometre long border with that country as well as tribal population linked by both ethnic and blood ties. Which is why whether it liked it or not, it got involved in America's two Afghan wars and paid a high price for that in the form of lives lost, spread of violence in society, Afghan refugees, and of course a devastated economy.
It has deployed over 140,000 troops in its tribal areas in aid of the US campaign across the Durand Line. Pakistan therefore has a stake in a peaceful and stable Afghanistan, and also ensuring that any future Kabul government is friendly towards it. Indian entrenchment in Afghanistan would pose security challenges from both its eastern and northern flanks, turning that unfortunate country, yet again, into an arena of outside hostilities. After more than thirty years of war, the least the Afghan people deserve is to be left alone to sort out their internal disputes, and live in peace with one another.
Instead of opening new fronts of competition and conflict, it is in the interest of both Pakistan and India, and indeed that of this region, that these two neighbours resolve the issues of dispute between them. Some encouraging movement in that direction was made at the recent commerce secretaries' talks. In parallel with liberalisation of trade and commerce, India must also try and work towards resolving other disputes, such as Siachin and Sir Creek, on which substantive progress had been made when the composite dialogue process broke down in the aftermath of the Mumbai attacks in 2008.
This should pave the way for the resolution of the core issue of conflict, Kashmir. Recently, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh offered much reason for optimism when he said he would think his job was well done if by the time he leaves office, he succeeds in normalising relations with Pakistan. That indeed is the best bet for India not only to reap the dividends of peace within bilateral context but also in Afghanistan and beyond in the resource-rich Central Asian Republics.