The inevitable is happening.
Nearly thirty months after the United States was forced to ignominiously withdraw its troops from Afghanistan, bringing its twenty-year-old occupation and war to an end, Narendra Modi’s government is pragmatically, albeit slowly, normalising relations with the Taliban regime in Kabul.
The inevitability of New Delhi’s changed attitude towards the Taliban is easily explained by three developments since August 2021, when the last contingent of American troops flew from Kabul airport in chaotic circumstances. First, Ashraf Ghani, the former Afghan president whose government had been recognised by India, fled the country ─ reportedly taking huge amounts of ill-gotten dollars with him.
Just a month earlier, when asked if American departure from Afghanistan would resemble the humiliating scenes from Vietnam in 1975, President Joe Biden had bragged, “None whatsoever. Zero.” He even exuded confidence that the Afghan military of 300,000 troops under President Ghani — “as well equipped as any army in the world” ─ would prevent the Taliban from capturing power. Biden was proved wrong on both counts. The American army’s escape from Kabul was reminiscent of the Fall of Saigon. Thereafter, Afghan soldiers offered zero resistance to a swift takeover by the Taliban, the main force that defeated the mighty American army and also, previously, the invading Soviet army.