India Boosting ‘Soft Power’ Edge Inside Afghanistan Amid Hunger Crisis
Michael Hughes
June 8, 2023
As tensions between the Taliban government in Kabul and its longtime benefactors in Pakistan continue to boil, India is quietly enhancing its reputation inside Afghanistan through various humanitarian efforts, especially through food aid, although the assistance is no solution to long-term structural and governance challenges.
A barge containing 2,500 metric tons of Indian wheat en route to Afghanistan arrived at Chabahar port on Thursday, Tolo News reported, as part of a commitment New Delhi made to provide at least 20,000 tons in the coming months. This comes on the heels of 40,000 tons of wheat India donated as Afghanistan struggles with record level hunger.
The World Food Program (WFP) issued alerts saying nearly 20 million Afghans are not consuming enough food in a humanitarian crisis of incredible proportions that has grown even more complex and severe since the Taliban took control. The WFP is requesting almost $1.5 billion over the next six months to address the emergency-level food insecurity.
In a joint report this week, the WFP and UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) predicted that the food insecurity in both Afghanistan and Pakistan will deteriorate amid multiple economic and political crises the countries are dealing with.
At a presser earlier in the day, Indian External Affairs chief S. Jaishankar announced that India dispatched a technical team to its embassy in Kabul as part of an effort to support the people of Afghanistan.
“We pulled back the India-based diplomats and staff after the Taliban took control of Kabul because we had legitimate security concerns – a lot of other countries also did it. With the passage of time, we have sent back a technical team to the embassy. They have been there for some time, their job is essentially in a sense to monitor the situation and see how we can support the Afghan people in their hour of need,” the minister said as quoted by The Times of India.
Jaishankar noted that Afghanistan is facing a vaccine shortage, wheat shortage, and medicine shortage and projects to alleviate the crises will get more difficult over time.
“The focus right now in Afghanistan is less, I would say, political. It is more like helping the Afghan people because Afghan people are people with whom we have a historical connection. So, that is really the current state of the situation,” he added when asked about the current ties between New Delhi and the government in Kabul.
Economists, however, are concerned that humanitarian assistance, while helpful, cannot address Afghanistan’s economic crisis in the long term.
“Such aid has no economic benefit. Even if trillions of dollars are provided to the humanitarian sector, it will be beneficial but just to create some problems for the long term. It cannot alleviate poverty and joblessness,” Abdul Naseer Rishtia told Tolo News.
Mir Shikib Mir, another economist, explained that the assistance provided by the international community since the Taliban seized power has been too narrowly focused.
“This aid has not been driven to create job opportunities in the country or in infrastructural sectors,” Mir said.
Taliban Spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid even in light of this aid called on India to help Afghanistan in the diplomatic and economic fields. However, India like most countries has shown no sign it is even considering recognizing the regime due to human rights abuses and refusal to form an inclusive government.
India in the process has cut-out Pakistan as the middle man in the delivery of aid as well, as observed by former Indian ambassador Ashok Sajjanhar.
“Use of Chahbahar negates the indispensability of Pakistan in terms of India reaching out to Afghanistan and Central Asia, especially since [Islamabad’s] own relations have gone south with the Taliban and ours have gotten better,” Sajjanhar told Nikkei Asia last month.
In a sense, India is competing with rival China, a Pakistani ally, in the humanitarian war to win the hearts and minds of Afghans. Beijing has been accused of using development projects and loans in countries like Afghanistan partly for economic gain, although Beijing has learned some of these lessons and also donates substantial assistance without conditions in a bid to appear less exploitative. On the other hand, some economists argue that some development projects at least give the client state skin in the game and theoretically should directly or indirectly enhance capacities.
The irony is, of course, glaring that as India bolsters ties with the Sunni radical movement, Pakistan’s relations with the Taliban have practically hit new lows with Islamabad enraged that the Pakistani Taliban are using Afghan soil to launch cross-border attacks. For years, Pakistan’s military used Afghan soil to train and groom terrorist assets to attack India in the struggle over Kashmir. Now, India is deploying its own “strategic depth” doctrine, but of a humanitarian sort.