Delhi's faux pas

This moot is merely an attempt to stage a comeback diplomatically, regain as much clout as it can

India’s attempt to gather security advisers from the region for a dialogue on Afghanistan got a jolt as China refused to attend it at the eleventh hour. This put New Delhi, obviously, in a faux pas of its own. Pakistan too had refused to be part of the paranoid moot, rightly keeping in view India’s jingoism and double-standards in Afghanistan. It is no secret that Delhi had played a spoiler’s role in the region, especially by hobnobbing in Balochistan through its secret agents based in the neighbouring southwest Asian state, as well as fanning and plotting terrorism inside Pakistan. Thus, with Beijing and Islamabad opting to stay away, the initiative has almost ended as a non-starter. This in itself should come as a grim realisation for India that regional consensus could not be achieved through a policy of fomenting trouble.

The million-dollar question is: what prompted India to call a moot on Afghanistan? The point is India had always eyed Kabul as an extension of its geopolitical ambitions, and succinctly made use of every government there to extend its influence over the region. While Pakistan has been accessible to Afghanistan, by virtue of the latter’s landlocked status, India’s prime motive was to derail it from the emerging map of geo-economics. This is why it came up with a staggering $3 billion investment in Afghanistan and spread a web of missions to make its presence felt. The fall of Kabul to Taliban has come as a strategic shock for India, and it feels left all alone.

This moot is merely an attempt to stage a comeback diplomatically, and regain as much clout as it can. This is why Beijing’s snub should be read in the wider mosaic of realpolitik as it paid back India by reminding it as to how it has tried to deface geographical realities by taking on China at the LAC. Moeed Yusuf, the NSA, took a leaf from Neorealism to expose India for what it is, and what it has been plotting by simply saying a ‘no’ to the invitation. China and Pakistan have called a spade a spade.

Published in The Express Tribune, November 11^th, 2021.

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