When people across Afghanistan vote to choose a new President and members of provincial councils tomorrow, they will be following a broad framework of democratic functioning developed and put into practice over the last six decades in India.

When the elected lawmakers get down to the task of rebuilding their war-torn nation and nurturing its fledgling democracy, India will, again, be the model they will look up to for guidance and inspiration.

India is building Afghanistan’s new, $25-million National Assembly in Kabul. In the four years since Prime Minister Manmohan Singh laid the foundation stone of the building in August 2005, over a dozen Afghan delegations have visited New Delhi to study the functioning of India’s parliament.

“The Afghans are very keen to understand the way our parliamentary system works — the administration of the Secretariat, formulation of bills, application of rules and procedure, Legislative control over the Executive, the structure of business, the Committee system and relations between the two Houses,” said Lok Sabha Secretary-General P D T Achary.

The Lok Sabha Secretariat has been running training programmes for Afghans in legislation-drafting, website management, information and communication technology and auditing. Some of these training programmes are funded by the Ministry of External Affairs under the Indian Technical Economic Co-operation Programme.

Like India, Afghanistan has a bicameral legislature. The National Assembly is made up of the 250-member Wolesi Jirga — the House of the People — and the 102-member Meshrano Jirga, or the Upper House.

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