With intensified Taliban push in Helmand and Urugzan provinces and simmering Chief Executive Abdullah-led discontent serving as frustrating backdrop Afghan President Ashraf Ghani was in New Delhi this week to seek some morale-boosting support. And it did come in full. Given India's much-sought opportunity to exploit an insecure and unstable Afghanistan it has responded generously, but by offering only that kind of the support which fits more into the New Delhi's regional ambitions than what the Afghan people really need. Almost everything said and done in New Delhi during Asharf Ghani's two-day visit was anti-Pakistan. Nothing would please the Indian leadership more than holding Pakistan responsible for the Afghan government's colossal failure on political and economic fronts. So, by deciding to hold the next Heart of Asia-Istanbul Process conference in Amritsar, close to the Indo-Pak border and not in the Indian capital, the two leaders have clearly betrayed their anti-Pakistan mindsets instead of thinking about the political and diplomatic interests of the entire region that constitute the heart of Asia. One wonders if the other 12 member states, who are expected to attend the conference to be held in December, would like the moot to be hijacked by India for its anti-Pakistan scheme of things.
Now that the United States has called upon India to help Afghanistan militarily the Afghan president had arrived in New Delhi with a long list of weaponry. India has already delivered some helicopters, but the list includes among other items warplanes, tanks and artillery pieces. So, under the cover of 'development aid' India has agreed to extend to Ghani government a long-term loan of $1 billion. It would be spent to 'strengthen security' which would require latest arms and the cost would come from this aid package. And, since it goes with the nature of politicking practiced both by Ashraf Ghani and Narendra Modi they couldn't afford to be non-complainant against Pakistan. Pakistan is not allowing India to send wheat to starving Afghan population through land route, they bewailed, repeating what President Ghani had said in his meeting with the UK special representative Owen Jenkin in Kabul a week before. There has to be some limit to hypocrisy, but that was not there in New Delhi this week also. There is no reality whatsoever to this canard. Firstly, there is no such agreement under which Indian goods can be transited through the Wagah border post. However, they can use air and sea accesses to Afghanistan through Pakistan. Secondly, the decision that India would give 1.7 lakh tons of wheat to Afghanistan was taken last year. If India was honest about helping the starving Afghans it could have transported the commodity by sea or air by now than to wait for nine months and make it an anti-Pakistan scandal.
But if Pakistan refused transit of wheat or other goods from India to Afghanistan through land routes President Ashraf Ghani would have the opportunity to speak boastfully about finding a way to get around by the use of the Iranian port of Chahbahar. Chahbahar is being developed by Iran in partnership with India. So far there is no mention of the United States' partnership in this project, although nothing would please Washington more than the plans and projects which tend to neutralise the China's rising clout in this region. That Chahbahar port would turn out to be a facility to rival the Gwadar port in terms of capacity, which is being developed as part of the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), is a misperception. But for India this is more than enough to be the United States' strategic proxy in this region. No question then President Ghani has crossed the line and cost his lot with India, something Pakistan should know for its future take on Afghanistan and who to talk to in Kabul.