To take one example; Afghanistan is clearly a crucial country for our national security. Our foreign policy mandarins have their work cut out for them there, and I would be surprised if Afghanistan isn’t a priority for RAW. But the most interesting asset for India in Afghanistan doesn’t come out of one of our famous consulates in the border regions. It comes, instead, from one simple fact: Don’t try to telephone an Afghan at 8.30 in the evening. That’s when the Indian TV soap opera Kyunki saas bhi kabhi bahu thi, dubbed into Dari, is telecast on Tolo TV, and no one wishes to miss it. It’s the most popular television show in Afghan history, considered directly responsible for a spike in functions which clash with its broadcast times. Saas has so thoroughly captured the public imagination in Afghanistan that, in this deeply conservative Islamic country where family problems are usually hidden behind the veil, it’s an Indian TV show that has come to dominate society’s discussion of family issues. I have read reports of wedding banquets being interrupted so that the guests could huddle around the television set for half an hour, and even an increase in crime at 8.30 pm because watchmen are sneaking a look at TV rather than minding the store. One Reuters dispatch recounted how robbers in Mazari-I-Sharif stripped a vehicle of its wheels and mirrors recently during telecast time and wrote on the car, in an allusion to the show’s heroine, “Thanks, Tulsi’’. That’s soft power and India does not have to thank the government or charge the taxpayer for its exercise. Instead, Indians too can simply say, “Thanks,Tulsi’’.

... contd.