There has been a strange turnaround in the US attitude to Afghanistan. What is intriguing is that it has come right in the wake of President Barack Obama’s visit to India. Whether the statement issuing from the White House that the Taliban are an armed insurgency unlike the ISIS, which is a terrorist group, is meant to appease critics in India who see the US presence in West Asia as an evil sign of spreading American imperialism is not clear. Analysts in India actually do not see any difference between the Taliban and the ISIS, whichever side they are on. White House Deputy Press Secretary Eric Shoultz reiterated that the Taliban are an armed insurgency. It contradicts the fact that the outfit figures on a separate list of specifically designated global terrorists since 2002. Republicans think that it is an attempt to justify the bungling in trading five Taliban insurgents for army sergeant Bowe Bergadhl by splitting hairs. Barrack Obama had agreed to increase the residual US troops by 1000 and step up financial aid to the Kabul government so that it could stand up to the Taliban threat. The new Afghan president, Ashraf Ghani had made it clear that the Afghan military needed beefing up to combat the Taliban presence in the northern part of the country. The Taliban are also a threat to social values in modernizing Afghanistan. Besides, they are in cahoots with the Tehrik-i-Taliban (Pakistan) which shocked the world with its horrendous massacre of school children in Peshawar.
The Modi government is naturally uncommitted on the US pullout from Afghanistan. Public opinion in India is still clouded by what Amartya Sen called “gut anti-Americanism”. But India should be careful about consolidating its position in Afghanistan and prevent Pakistan from muscling in with the ISI secretly backing Taliban militants. The former government dithered about lending military and financial assistance to Kabul. The NDA government should speed up the aid to Afghanistan. The US trying to whitewash the Taliban can bring little satisfaction to New Delhi.
