All the gains from the unprecedented tête-à-tête between India’s Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri and Afghanistan’s Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi in Dubai, the highest level of engagement between New Delhi and Kabul so far, after we hastily retreated from the Taliban country in mid-August 2021, will eventually go to waste if Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government doesn’t stop shunning ordinary Afghans. It may sound undiplomatic, but it is true.

On the one hand, India wants to cosy up to Afghanistan to secure our legitimate national interests, especially at a time when relations between Islamabad and Kabul are in tatters; Misri’s rendezvous with Muttaqi in a third country, capping a string of overt and covert initiatives by New Delhi, is proof of our eagerness to go to any length to woo the Taliban regime. But on the other hand, we flatly deny visas to Afghan students, patients and businessmen; Afghans are virtually forbidden to enter India!

The Modi government’s shockingly contradictory, two-faced approach begs some fundamental questions: Is it really possible to win over Afghanistan while deliberately keeping ordinary Afghans at arm’s length? Can India hope to exercise any worthwhile influence in Afghanistan in pursuit of its strategic goals after slamming the door shut in the face of ordinary Afghans as if they are all terrorists? At this rate, will........

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