India Must Secure Its Investments in Kabul

The inauguration of a new agriculture university in Kandahar in Afghanistan marks a new milestone in India-Afghan ties. It is the first such institution in the landlocked nation set up with financial assistance from India. President Hamid Karzai considers the university as one of his legacies as Afghanistan elects its president in April next. Significantly, it is located in a farm from where Al-Qaeda chief Osama bin Laden plotted 9/11. Since agriculture accounts for 60 per cent of Afghanistan’s GDP and farmers use primitive methods of farming, the university can play as crucial a role as the Allahabad Agriculture institute played in India. The university is part of the $2 billion India invested in the infrastructure projects in Afghanistan.

For a country that is not an international donor, the investment made in Afghanistan is substantial. Most of the $2 billion has gone into building roads and hospitals and educational institutions. Pakistan and the Taliban do not like India’s presence in Afghanistan. In the past they had done everything possible to evict Indians, using tactics which can be described as only intimidatory. India enjoys considerable goodwill in Kabul, reflected from the fact that 614 people from Afghanistan have availed of Indian scholarships to study in Indian agriculture varsities. Similarly, there are police personnel who undergo training in India.