A tweet by the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party’s MP, Subramanian Swamy, on Sunday fuelled speculation about India’s participation in a purported move at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to pass a resolution without referring to the Taliban of Afghanistan as a terrorist organization.
“I am surprised to hear that India as Chairman of the UN Security Council is going to pilot a Resolution on Afghanistan in the UNSC tomorrow after deleting the word Terrorist to describe Taliban. Already knees are knocking?” Swamy, who often crosses party lines to express his views, posted on Twitter, apparently taking a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government.
The UNSC on August 16 “reaffirmed the importance of combating terrorism in Afghanistan to ensure the territory of Afghanistan should not be used to threaten or attack any country and that neither the Taliban nor any other Afghan group or individual should support terrorists operating on the territory of any other country.” The council, however, avoided a direct reference to the Taliban in another statement issued last Friday, after twin explosions killed over 100 near the airport in Kabul. “The… “The Security Council reiterated the importance of combating terrorism in Afghanistan to ensure the territory of Afghanistan should not be used to threaten or attack any country, and that no Afghan group or individual should support terrorists operating on the territory of any country,” it stated in a statement issued by India’s envoy to the UN, T S Tirumurti, as the president of the council.
While speaking about the New Ramifications of the Afghan situation Dr, Swamy said at the moment what is happening in the last ten days is unprecedented and unexpected. He said after the Taliban took over Afghanistan and walked into the presidential palace, the night before President of Afghanistan flee leaving the country.
He said today there is no formal initiation of any government but the Taliban is in control and the Taliban has many branches and allies. They have a branch in Pakistan that mostly survived after the American attack in 2002.
He added that today Taliban has captured almost every district in Afghanistan except the Northern part of the Panjshir district (NRF) which is headed by a very charismatic leader’s son Ahmed Massoud. However, he is also supported by Amrullah Saleh and others in his fight against the Taliban.
He said that many years ago during the 1980s India had helped this group of Mussod, when they came to Delhi and had talks with many prominent Indian leaders.
According to Swamy, the new ramification which has to be answered is, How India has helped Afghanistan fight the Taliban? So far India has not taken any stand against the Taliban not only this India has been left out of everything, the Americans had formed a quad that consisted of China, the Taliban, Pakistan, and Russia but India was not invited. Again the Russians made a quad in which India was not invited.
India technically is a neighbour of Afghanistan because the POK which is in Pakistan’s control shares a border with Afghanistan.
He further spoke about the long association of India with Afghanistan from the time of Mahabharat, where Dhritarashtra’s wife and his brother-in-law Shakuni were also from a part of Afghanistan.
He asserted that right from the time of history during Maharaja Ranjeet Singh, to Maharabharata the only country that defeated Afghanistan is India.
Swamy said India’s contribution towards Afghanistan’s economic and social development right from 2002 till date, in terms of infrastructure like the parliament building in Afghanistan to building of the library, India built so many other things in Afghanistan. India has built not only in Kabul but in so many other provinces of Afghanistan as well. A huge highway was built known as the Zarang highway by Nitin Gadkari’s ministry. India drafted their constitution and even in the Education sector, India has provided many scholarships to so many Afghanistanis. Many of the Afghanis and their prominent leaders of Afghanistan had even earlier taken a degree from India.
Swamy further pointed out that there is a debate in our country and the Indian government is confused about whether we should make up with the Taliban or not. Taliban are terrorist outfit just because they have occupied power on Afghanistan India cannot accept Taliban, Taliban is with Pakistan this fact cannot be denied. Pakistan must have been rejoicing today when the Taliban retained power.
He said how do you make friends with the Taliban when it is an extremist Islamic country, Osama bin laden had been protected for a long period and have been a long association with Pakistan, the reality check is not being done by the current government.
He said one of the most ridiculous statements given by the External Affairs minister is “we will wait and see how things digup, there is no room for digging up, every day new thing comes up and we are a loser in this way he asserted. The present government keeps all things on hope which ultimately makes them the loser.
Secondly, he said that the Chinese are fully into it and in a very clever way, just before the Taliban move into Kabul a delegation including the one who is now going to be the president of Afghanistan went to China, they stayed three-four days there and had a full discussion. He said, “for the economic development of Afghanistan I am sure China will use it fully”. Chinese are quiet but highly successful in the way they have penetrated Afghanistan.
He said India who is the Chairman of two security council’s now, India prepared its draft on 14th August when it said the terrorism of Taliban or any other group connected with Taliban must be ended is what the original resolution stated but the resolution that has come out yesterday has completely deleted that and now it states that the no Afghan group or any individual should support terrorists. This indicates that India has given a clean chit that the Taliban is not a terrorist organization.
He said “India has spent so much in constructive activities in Afghanistan and the people of Afghanistan who are not terrorist, they like India very much because they feel happy when they come to India and being treated. They like India’s democratic freedom they like the way India empowers its women and they are for India. Now in these circumstances are you going to sacrifice Afghanistan to Taliban or you are prepare to fight”, he added.
If we do not take a stand now then the Taliban can become a security concern for India too, India will then be surrounded with enmity not only with China and Pakistan but also by the Taliban, and India will be in great difficulty in the coming days as we may lose Kashmir as the border of POK is shared with Afghanistan as well. China is already keeping a vigilant eye on northeast India and Ladakh.
He further invited Prof. Nalapat to enlighten the way from all these grimed pictures and pave a way and what should be the policy towards Afghanistan from now on.
