Almost as if to emphasise that there would be no change in Washington’s view on India’s role in Afghanistan, Robert Blake, Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asia, said in a Congressional hearing that “any discussion of South Asia has to start with India”, and that the State Department viewed India “as kind of the economic linchpin for future” as far as its’ significant role in Afghanistan was concerned.
Mr. Blake’s upbeat comments to members of the Asia-Pacific Subcommittee of the House Foreign Affairs Committee came a day after a video surfaced of Chuck Hagel, now confirmed as Secretary of Defence, hinting at India’s alleged role in fuelling instability between Afghanistan and Pakistan along the Durand Line.
In the 2011 video, published by conservative media outlet Washington Free Beacon, he was seen saying,
“India has over the years financed problems for Pakistan... India for sometime has always used Afghanistan as a second front... and you can carry that into many dimensions.”
Despite these remarks and fierce resistance from Congressional Republicans to his nomination on Tuesday, Mr. Hagel was confirmed to the top Pentagon job in a narrow, 58-to-41 vote.
In a statement on what he described as Mr. Hagel’s “bipartisan confirmation”, President Barack Obama said, “I will be counting on Chuck’s judgment and counsel as we end the war in Afghanistan, bring our troops home, stay ready to meet the threats of our time and keep our military the finest fighting force in the world.”
Keywords: Robert Blake, India’s role in Afghanistan, Chuck Hagel, Durand Line
Chuck Hagle is a well known Pakistan sympathizer and he has always hated India's guts for siding with the erstwhile USSR (which he has always blamed and hated for the Vietnam fiasco) and not USA during the cold war days. Robert Blake on the other hand is a career diplomat who knows that the tides have changed and his next promotion depends on pleasing his boss who happens to be Hagle.
These statements by the two top diplomats dealing with South-Asia in the current Obama administration is indicative of the fact that things may not be as smooth for India as it has been since 2001. The US is pulling out of Afghanistan in a year or two and they would rather have the Al Qaeda's and the Talibans creating trouble in Kashmir and not in Afghanistan.
Our government should take strong note of these changing tides and prepare for the worst, for I fear 1989 might be repeated again.
Through the ages Afghanistan has been known as graveyard of empires (superpowers), I suppose it can be extended to aspiring superpowers.
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