India's special relationship with Afghanistan has been underlined with an encounter yesterday between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai, to whom Singh sent a message of sympathy and concern when he miraculously escaped an assassination attempt back home a few days ago.As Afghanistan’s first US-supported elections in October loom large, India has stepped forward with promises of assistance that includes many tonnes of indelible ink, the mark of a successful voter in any Indian election. Manmohan Singh offered Karzai ‘‘any other’’’ assistance for the elections and Karzai accepted the offer. Indian aid, especially in the health, education and infrastructure will easily top $400 million very soon.The PM’s meeting with Karzai was held soon after a trilateral meeting between US President Bush, Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Karzai himself, an encounter the Indian delegation is said to have watched with some interest. Bush is said to have impressed upon the need for a free and fair election, including an atmosphere that is free of fear of the Taliban.Sources pointed out that the return of the Taliban to parts of Afghanistan — a lot of murders, especially of international aid workers have been attributed to a Taliban resurgence —has been met with enormous concern by Washington, since it is the US that is sponsoring the election. Meanwhile, US officials privately admit that the Taliban receives significant support from across the impermanent borderlands in Pakistan.Having been kept out of Afghan politics for the best part of the 90s, India is clearly keen to cement its stakes in the ‘‘constantly evolving great game for strategic influence’’, analysts said. And so, even though Afghan Interior Minister Yusuf Qanooni, a former key aide of the Northern Alliance leader Ahmed Shah Masood — whom India, Iran and Russia supported in the pre-9/11 era — has now pitted himself against Karzai, New Delhi is refusing to say whom it supports. Moreover, the government has no interest in confronting the US, knowing well that the presence of 45,000 US troops in the region is a factor of stability.Manmohan Singh yesterday wished Karzai well in the elections and hoped that Afghanistan would maintain ‘‘national unity and ethnic harmony’’, a reference to the bitter feuds that often erupt between the Panjshiris (Qanooni is one), the Pashtuns (Karzai is one), the Hazaras in the interior (where India is building a mini-power plant), etc.
