(SNM Abdi is the former Deputy Editor of Outlook. This column appeared in The Quint on August 31, 2021)
- The “horses for courses” mantra of the US foreign policy is badly hurting India’s strategic and security interests in Afghanistan today. But India’s External Affairs Ministry, headed by S. Jaishankar, who got the job because of his perceived intimacy with the US and the capability to swing favourable deals for India, is silent in order to keep up the pretence of a ‘happy marriage’ with the world’s leading superpower. Despite multiple requests before and after the fall of Kabul on 15 August, the US denied New Delhi a diplomatic outpost inside Kabul airport — considered the safest place in Afghanistan as it is still under US control — for stationing a core team of Indian officials. The US happily accommodated the UK, France, Germany and other NATO countries, but cited a space crunch to keep India out…
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