Time for India to squeeze Pakistan out of Afghanistan

Shortly before prime minister (PM) Manmohan Singh left for Kabul, he said: “We are people of the same region. We cannot remain unaffected by developments in Afghanistan.” Rather than Afghanistan, however, the ‘development’ he must have had in mind was the killing of Osama bin Laden, an event that has significantly altered Pakistan’s relations with friends and foes alike.

Though India remains on the path of dialogue, the PM’s Kabul visit has a symbolic significance. Pre-Osama, Islamabad might have pressurised Washington to keep Delhi’s activities in Kabul limited. Recall the London Conference on Afghanistan in Jan 2010, where Pakistan effectively sidelined India. Post-Osama, Pakistan’s sensitivities (on India’s role in Afghanistan) appear to impact the West less.

That Osama found shelter in Pakistan for six years has enraged American lawmakers and severely disgruntled the US administration. But as calls for a troop withdrawal from Afghanistan reaches a crescendo, the US finds itself in a bind: leaving would create a vacuum which the Pakistani Army desperately wants to fill. It is in this atmosphere of transnational distrust that Manmohan Singh spends 48 hours in Kabul.

Ever since the US gained a foothold in Afghanistan in 2001, India has been relegated to a role of building roads and infrastructure. Only now is the government talking of building a more ‘strategic’ relationship. Though the PM carries with him the promise of multi-million dollar projects, the strategy that he and Afghan president Hamid Karzai can adopt is only one: to keep Pakistan out of Afghanistan. It is high time that the geographical squeeze which India and Afghanistan have on their neighbour be made a literal one.