WASHINGTON: The BJP has cautioned the U.S. against any peace talks with the Taliban arguing that the terrorist outfit is unlikely to change its behaviour and reconciliation effort would be a futile exercise. “The eagerness to engage with elements that want to return Afghanistan to the status of ‘Islamic Emirates’ in the hope that they would deliver, and in the process humiliating and weakening the democratic leadership, doesn’t behove well for the region,” BJP President Rajnath Singh said yesterday. He was speaking at a conference on Afghanistan at the Capitol Hill jointly organised by the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies, U.S. India Political Action Committee and American Foreign Policy Council. “If this accommodation with the Taliban is pursued with cooperation of the Pakistani military, as seems to be the case, the situation will become even more fraught, as many would say that it is the strategic ambition of the Pakistan Army to control Afghanistan that is at the root of the conflict there,” Singh said. The BJP president cautioned that any efforts to replace the present democratic arrangement with a totalitarian and sectarian Taliban regime would be detrimental not only to the people of Afghanistan or its immediate neighborhood, but also to countries like India, Russia, China and even the US. “It is the experience of the whole world that terrorism knows no boundaries,” he said. It is regrettable that once again an attempt is being made to make-believe that the real cause of the Afghan conflict is India-Pakistan rivalry there, Singh said in his speech in English. He said Taliban is unlikely to change its behavior and reconciliation effort would be a futile exercise. “This is a travesty of facts; the creation of Taliban, its takeover of Afghanistan, the Taliban-Al Qaeda links, the presence of Osama bin Laden there, the attack on the Twin Towers traced to the Al Qaeda in Afghanistan, the subsequent U.S. military intervention there, the presence of the Taliban leadership in Pakistan, the killing of NATO soldiers by the Haqqani group and others and the drone attacks against terrorist targets in Pakistan; none of them have anything to do with India,” he said. Singh said India has supported reconciliation in Afghanistan that is Afghan-led and Afghan-owned. The sincere efforts in the first couple of years after 9/11 had led to the Loya Jirgah meeting in 2003-2004 and emergence of a democratic Islamic Republic of Afghanistan with a new Constitution. “The Government of Hamid Karzai was a product of that exercise,” he said, adding that India extended full support to the initiative and has been actively involved in supporting the democratic regime through development aid. India’s development aid to Afghanistan stands at USD 2 billion.
Source: The Economic Times