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The new Great Game in
Kabul
The
weather gods must, absolutely, be to blame. A special flight bound
for Kabul last week, carrying not only officials from the Ministry
of External Affairs but also businessmen from the various chambers
of commerce, was stranded on the tarmac at Teheran for over six
hours. Ultimately, all these good men returned home, the bad weather
preventing them from carrying out their work in the Afghan capital.
Within
48 hours of that event, the gods seem to have relented, allowing
Hamid Karzai with his suitcase full of capes to land in Islamabad.
As New Delhi watched with growing horror, the top Afghan leader
pronounced a ‘‘brotherly’’ reunion with General
Musharraf. It was a moment fraught with history and it signalled
a brand, new chapter in the old Great Game that has for more than
a century witnessed the changing fortunes of nations in this part
of the world.
Certainly,
Karzai had been persuaded by none other than the US, which has baldly
stated its intent not to leave Central Asia in a hurry, to go and
shake the hand of his much-too-recent enemy, Pakistan. Musharraf
and his predecessors were key players in keeping the Taliban in
power. In turn, Mullah Omar and company happily acquiesced in providing
Islamabad with the strategic depth it needed in Afghanistan. Both
turned a blind eye to the terror and fanaticism that was spawned,
indeed encouraged, in the bloody swathe of territory on both sides
of the Durand line. Interestingly, for most of this last decade,
Karzai divided his time between Pakistan and the US.
As
Karzai and Musharraf warmly embraced each other, the old irony that
had been waiting just around the corner hit New Delhi between the
eyes. Young Hamid had first been a student in a Shimla university
a couple of decades ago, and by all accounts, he was keen on history.
And hadn’t he since had more than his fair share of it? Not
only had Pakistan supported the enemy, Taliban, until it was ousted
by the US and the Northern Alliance, but the latter, in these intervening
years, had been funded by none other than India, Russia and Iran.
Purists
in New Delhi may have shuddered at the thought of alchemising old
enmities into new friendships, but clearly Karzai has been drinking
from a different stream called pragmatism. With the Americans having
practically cleansed Kabul and promised large sums of dollars for
the reconstruction of the old country, who was he to shrink from
shaking hands with Musharraf? Clearly, Washington wanted to publicly
demonstrate its affections for the Pakistani leader — on the
eve of his visit to the US this week — for having had the courage
to adopt the contrary course.
Perhaps
there was a suggestion here for India as well, to get back to the
dialogue with Islamabad. Perhaps, Karzai the Pashtun was indicating
that New Delhi could not take its old friendship with the Northern
Alliance, now in power in Kabul, for granted. Meanwhile, what was
that about nations having no permanent enemies or friends, anyway?
Hamid
Karzai may or may not have stolen a march over India by first visiting
Pakistan last week. According to one school of thought, preparations
for his visit here were postponed in January because of New Delhi’s
crowded diplomatic calendar. Whatever the truth, great opportunities
to reforge and renew the Indian link with the ‘Kabuliwallah’
have today been thrown up in ways never imagined before. Especially
since India has welcomed the continuing US presence in Central Asia-Afghanistan,
which includes support for the Karzai administration.
Clearly,
a massive rethink, away from the fearful and exclusivist mindset
seems to be in order in India. What if, for example, New Delhi was
to announce a few score Hamid Karzai fellowships to Afghan students
to study in India, in honour of the mother country’s impact
on the new Afghan leader. What if this were to be extended to other
young people in the region, to identify leaders of tomorrow... think
of the impact this would have when they led their own nations in
the future. What if borders were thrown open, much like the one
between India and Nepal, to encourage travellers from Mazar-i-Sharief
to Myanmar, from Colombo to Kandahar, via Kolkata. A cross-fertilisation
of people and resources would follow, to calm the mind, not benumb
it.
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