From fiction to fact: India forever in Afghanistan

From the days of the gentle Kabuliwala, the eponymous story about a towering Afghan and his relationship with a young girl, to thousands of Indians busy building roads, bridges and power stations amid the relentless violence in Afghanistan, the saga of Indian-Afghan bonding, despite it not finding favour with some countries, has few parallels in the world.

In public opinion surveys in which Afghans rate different countries involved in rebuilding their country, India has consistently topped the approval ratings, ahead of even the UN and NATO.

Not without reason.

It\’s not just the $1.3 billion aid India has pledged, making it the largest regional donor and the sixth largest bilateral donor to Afghanistan. It\’s the impact these India-aided projects, ranging from infrastructure to dozens of quick-gestation grassroots development programmes, are making to the lives of war-weary ordinary Afghans.

Despite a deadly attack on the Indian embassy in Kabul July 7, 2008, followed by a failed attempt over a year later and killings of many Indians, India\’s resolve to rebuild the shattered infrastructure in Afghanistan is visible just about everywhere, be it education, health, power and telecommunications. Nearly 4,000 Indians are engaged in these development works.

In May last year, the India-funded Chimtala substation in Kabul came into operation, bringing electricity from the neighbouring Uzbekistan to Afghanistan. Since then, Kabul has been getting round-the-clock electricity and water supply, a feat of sorts given the endemic violence in that country.

Afghans are happy not only because of 24×7 power supply, but the electricity produced is much cheaper than what they were used to. The Chimtala station, along with the Kabul to Pul-e-Khumri transmission system comprising 202 km of high-voltage wires, has been planned and executed by the Power Grid Corporation of India at an estimated cost of around $100 million.

In January 2009, India completed the 218-km Zaranj-Delaram highway in south-west Afghanistan near the Iranian border, a crucial step that will reduce New Delhi\’s dependence on Pakistan for overland access and spur trade not just between the two countries but also between Afghanistan and the energy-rich Central Asian countries.

Pakistan currently bars Indian goods overland access through its territory.

The new parliament building in Kabul and the Salma dam in Herat are expected to be completed next year. The foundation stone for the Afghan parliament building was laid by ex-Afghan king Zahir Shah in August 2005 in the presence of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

Manmohan Singh pitched for a \”democratic, stable and prosperous Afghanistan\” at the historic occasion. \”The roots of the plant are being laid that will, through your nurturing and care, grow into a sturdy \’panja chinar\’ (tree) of democracy. This edifice, when built, will be the heart of democracy in Afghanistan,\” he said memorably.

From democracy promotion and erecting power transmission lines in the north to building more than 200 km of road, digging tubewells in six provinces, running sanitation projects in Kabul, and working on lighting up 100 villages using solar energy, India has been at the forefront of rebuilding violence-ravaged Afghanistan.

The Indian external affairs ministry has also designed special programmes for training Afghan police officers, diplomats and civil servants. It plans to increase the quota for Afghan students and mid-career civil servants in the future. India\’s four consulates in Herat, Kandahar, Jalalabad and Mazar-e-Sharif keep a sharp eye on diverse India-aided reconstruction activities and also take the lead in promoting trade and economic ties between the two countries. Bilateral trade has grown rapidly, reaching $358m in 2007-2008.

With this wide array of reconstruction activities that directly improve the lives of ordinary Afghans, India has become an indispensable ally in stabilising Afghanistan and in spurring its socio-economic transformation despite New Delhi\’s declared official policy of not sending any troops.

US President Barack Obama has appreciated India\’s role in the civilian sector in Afghanistan and sought the Indian prime minister\’s advice when he met him in Washington Nov 24, days before announcing his new AfPak policy. India will also be an integral part of long-range regional plans that are being currently discussed among major and regional powers.

\”India\’s development initiatives are highly appreciated by Afghans. Every Afghan welcomes an honest commitment to improve the life of the people of the country,\” says Reto Stocker, the head of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) delegation in Afghanistan since 2005.

Added Ahmed Rashid, a much-sought-after analyst on Afghanistan and the author of \”The Taliban\” and \”Descent into Chaos\”: \”India\’s reconstruction strategy was designed to win over every sector of Afghan society, to give India a high profile with Afghans, gain the maximum political advantage and, of course, undercut Pakistani influence.\”

New Delhi denies any rivalry with Islamabad, but has made it clear many a time that the Taliban is a common enemy and its sanctuaries need to be eliminated in the interests of regional peace and security. This is why despite killings of many Indian workers and two attacks on its embassy in Kabul, India has been unwavering in its commitment to rebuilding Afghanistan and is now planning to foray into new areas like agriculture and irrigation.

Strategic calculations apart, it is India\’s soft power — as Shashi Tharoor, minister of state for external affairs and former under-secretary-general of the United Nations, puts it — that is New Delhi\’s winning card in Afghanistan.

\”But the most interesting asset for India in Afghanistan does not come out of a military mission: it does not have one. It comes, instead, from one simple fact: Do not try to telephone an Afghan at 8:30 in the evening,\” he writes.

\”That is when the Indian TV soap opera \’Kyunkii Saas Bhi Kabhi Bahu Thi\’, dubbed into Dari, is telecast on Tolo TV, and no one wishes to miss it.\”

It\’s not just TV soaps; the enduring power of Indian mass entertainment culture is pervasive. Amid the daily insanity of violence, Afghans find it calming to connect to Bollywood movies pulsating with dance and dazzle, and, yes, emotions and family values. One can find DVDs of the latest Bollywood movie in just about any corner shop in Kabul.

The response from the Afghan people is so overwhelming that India\’s Ambassador to Afghanistan Jayant Prasad thinks the ever-present threat to his life and those of his colleagues is a risk worth taking. The throng of smiling faces who line up daily outside the Indian embassy in Kabul to get Indian visas says it all. \”Nothing can deter us from doing our work in Afghanistan. India is in the heart of every Afghan and they know India will not quit,\” he said.