Opinion | India's cold shoulder to Afghanistan: Does it serve a message to Pak on Kashmir?

India snubbing Afghanistan people after the 2021 Taliban takeover could be a way of telling Pakistan that it is no longer interested in the battered region and that Pakistan should behave in the same way when it comes to Kashmir, writes senior journalist Sanjay Kapoor.

The demand for Indian visas began immediately after the Taliban swept into Kabul and rudely overthrew the puppet Abdul Ghani government on August 15, 2021. At that time, the effort of visa seekers was to rush out on western guilt and turbulence in their own country. The Afghanis were desperate for their own opportunities in disaster as they tried to cramp up in Jumbo jets to fly out and land in the US and Europe.

India was way down in priority for them including those who had long-term visas for India. Ten days later, New Delhi canceled all the visas for the Afghans, thus striking a body blow to the ties between the two people. India, which was trying to align its neighborhood policy with that of its new exclusionary citizen law that proposes to give visas to discriminated religious minorities - excluding Muslims - may have exacerbated the misery of Afghans as they searched for relief after the Taliban transported the country to an era where women are forbidden to work or study.

It was with surprise that the officers of the Ministry of External Affairs were greeted when they found that their requests for visas for India’s supporters were routinely turned down. Thousands of those who applied to live in India were those who were perceived to be Indian assets. What was the reason for refusing the visa to a people who swore by India and fought many of its battles with its permanent foe-Pakistan?

The response from the Home Ministry was built on the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA), which seeks to grant citizenship to discriminated minorities, excluding Muslims, from the neighboring countries. The message to those lobbying hard for visas from the Home Ministry was like this: "Afghans being Muslims do not qualify for citizenship anymore”.

In one fell swoop, it seemed, the Indian government had cut its umbilical cord with Afghanistan. It was possible to read statements from distressed Afghans saying” it seems as if our friend has shut its door on our face”. Since then there have been hundreds of requests for medical and other visas from prominent Afghans, but save for very short-stay visas for treatment, no one has been entertained. People of the stature of Vice Presidents and ministers are routinely turned back.

Is this strategy helping India’s cause?Some experts claim that by severing ties, India is truly assuring Pakistan that it is no longer interested in Afghanistan and it should behave in the same way with Kashmir. These experts claim that the manner in which the Indian government had lowered its exposure to Afghanistan over the years including shutting down the Jalalabad consulate suggests that there are some track 2 engagements that are trying to bring about a rapprochement between India and Pakistan.

The recent exposé from Pakistan in a publication, South Asia Index is intriguing. The report says that Prime Minister Narendra Modi was to visit Pakistan for 9 days to meet the then Pakistan PM, Imran Khan, to have a summit-level meeting, but suddenly Islamabad backed out of it.

Though confirmations on this proposed dialogue are hard to come by, authoritative sources claim that Pakistan called off the summit meeting as India refused to give guarantees on Kashmir. Pakistan, it is learned, wanted restoration of the statehood of Kashmir and was also distressed by the changing demographic profile of the valley, but New Delhi did not oblige.

It is not clear, though, whose initiative came close to bearing positive results, but what is happening in the region hardly augurs well for the people of Afghanistan, who have been forced to give up the gains of modern society to lead a difficult life where they cannot read or work anymore. The rapid shift to these dark ages means that the Taliban expects the women of Afghanistan to only bear children and satisfy the physical needs of their men. This is a cruel blow to Afghan women who were not only in the army but were also attaining new heights.

Though no one really blames the US for what is happening, Washington handed the country on a platter to the Taliban. The US still has sway over various factions of the Islamist group. Worse, after months of negotiations between the US interlocutor and Taliban emissaries, the decision to protect the women of the country was not implemented.

If the US had been forceful then they could have worked hard to ensure a multi-party democracy and dignity for women. Afghanistan is in a miserable shape as they scrounge for funds. What compounds their agony is that their funds have been frozen by the US. Observers claim that the reason why the Taliban government is putting the screws on women is due to the fact that it is not getting any international attention.

The West and the US are still focused on Ukraine-Russia war and they do not have the headspace to look elsewhere. As Kabul is in dire straits, the Taliban hopes that their decision to withdraw the rights of women will make the international community wake up. However, by the look of it, nothing is happening. On the contrary, Pakistan’s economic troubles are deepening the divide between the two countries as Islamabad is in no position to fulfill its commitment towards Kabul.

India is in a position to bail out Pakistan and Afghanistan, but it would keep its hands in its pockets due to different reasons. In the case of Pakistan, India wants it to cut its links with terror outfits. In the case of Afghanistan, India is still ambivalent, though it has opened its embassy in Kabul, but has not done anything more than that.

If it was keen to help Kabul then it would have given visas in big numbers to the girl students and kept their hopes and dreams alive. This act alone would have defeated the Taliban’s anti-women policies. In 2018 there were 3.8 million girls that had joined schools. Now darkness has descended on their lives, as geopolitically it has lost meaning.

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