Replied by Prerna Gandhi, Associate Fellow, VIF
Owing to the organic cultural connect and civilizational continuity, India has never had to 'establish' its presence in Afghanistan to earn legitimacy from its masses, much like the other regional players are compelled to do in the past few years to create the 'pockets of goodwill' in Afghanistan. Yet if we were to look at it from the prism of 'establishing Indian presence in Afghanistan', India is actively involved in developmental work in Afghanistan with over 430 projects in operation. Though India's developmental model is smaller compared to Chinese, American or European funding, the impact of the Indian aid in terms of per unit efficiency of aid surpasses even the American investment. Despite spending over 900b USD, Americans have lost the battle of legitimacy in Afghanistan a long time ago. Contrarily, India's humble 3b USD is not communicated enough despite being the highest aid by any regional donor. Ultimately, it is not 3b$ vs 900b$- India's aid is HIGH IMPACT INVESTMENT which has directly touched the lives of millions of common Afghans through libraries, irrigation, education, agriculture projects, governance reforms and other 'quick impact investments'.
As for the evolving situation post US pullout, our agencies are monitoring the situation from the field and acting swiftly keeping the Afghan and Indian interests in mind. It is not advisable from the strategic perspective to reveal every plan or the umbrella blue print due to sheer gravity of the situation and a real time threat of active adversaries operating on the Afghan soil through a wide network of extremists. People of Afghanistan has always appreciated Indian support and India will continue to engage to ensure their betterment.