At a joint news conference after his talks with Gilani, the Afghan president said, “India is a close friend of Afghanistan but Pakistan is a twin brother of Afghanistan".
India is watching Afghan president Hamid Karzai’s two day visit to Pakistan with much interest. With the new US backed bid to get the “moderate’’ Taliban to join the mainstream, Pakistan is slated to pay a much more pivotal political role in the reconciliation process. The parameters in Afghanistan are changing and India is keen to ensure that it continues to be relevant in the changed circumstances.
Karzai has always been a steadfast friend to India and a bitter critic of the Pakistan military. His equation with Pakistan’s civilian leaders president Asif Zardari and prime minister Yousuf Raza Gilani as opposed to the military are excellent.
But on Thursday the Afghan president was singing a different tune. At a joint news conference after his talks with Gilani, Karzai said, “India is a close friend of Afghanistan but Pakistan is a twin brother of Afghanistan. We are more than twins, we are conjoined twins. There is no separation, there cannot be a separation.”
Some old timers here are recalling the 1962 border war with China, when the Russia a close friend of India refused to come to New Delhi’s aid saying while India was a friend the China was a brother. In those early days China and Russia were comrades in arms.
Ironically Karzai insisted that India and Afghanistan have “very close and friendly relations, “ adding that India has been a great help in reconstruction work in his country.
Asked by Pakistani reporters about New Delhi’s role in destabilising Pakistan from its consulates in his country, Karzai said, “Afghanistan will not allow its territory to be used against any one of our neighbours, in particular against Pakistan. And we hope the same will reflect towards Afghanistan that Pakistani territory will not be used against Afghanistan.” The president cleverly turned the answer around to remind Pakistan of its role in supporting forces ranged against his government.
New Delhi realises Karzai’s compulsions and his need to have good relations with Pakistan, Afghanistan’s immediate neighbour. Nevertheless, New Delhi was peeved and taken aback when Hamid Karzai did not raise his voice against India’s exclusion from the Istanbul conference on Afghanistan, which had the Pakistan’s president Asif Zardari attend with Karzai and other major stake holders. The conference took place ahead of the London meet on Afghanistan.
Pakistan which was completely out of the loop of the Karzai government is gradually gaining ground. The Americans are strongly backing Karzai’s long held views of getting those who want to lay down arms join the mainstream.
The Americans as well as the Afghan president is well aware that the Taliban was the creation of the Pakistan military and its intelligence wing continues to have links with the top leadership.So Islamabad now is important for Karzai’s plans to divide the moderate Taliban from the Quetta shura where top Taliban leaders like Mullah Omar presides. There is little chance of the one eyed mullah and his group ever doing a deal with the Karzai government.
The speculation is that Farooq Wardak, the Afghan official educated in Pakistan is likely to be appointed as head of the reconciliation commission, the man who will negotiate and oversee the negotiations and reintegration of the Taliban fighters. Wardak has a large number of friends and contacts in Pakistan and is likely to be soft on Islamabad. The first jirga is scheduled for April end and everything has to be put in place before that date.
Pakistan is also looking to training the Afghan army which desperately needs professional help, looking ahead to a time when the US and Nato forces will begin sending back. So far the Nato as well as the Americans are training the Afghans, but the need is for sustained instructions. Pakistan is offering to do so as it has adequate training facilities.
India has been training a few Afghan officers in the training colleges here. Analysts here believe that New Delhi has to do much more than this. India should step up its training activities and make sure it plays a major role much as it does in building capacity in other areas of Afghanistan.
Though no one in the government wants to say so, the fact remains that Islamabad will ensure through the Americans not to allow large scale training of the Afghan army in Indian territory. Pakistan which wants India out of what it regards as its backyard will not want a India-friendly Afghan army in place next to its border. As it happens Pakistan has been charging Hamid Karzai’s men together with India’s intelligence agency of destabilising Afghanistan.
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