It was clear from the beginning that unlike the kidnappers of three Indian workers in Iraq last year, Maniappan Kutty’s abductors didn’t want to negotiate. Despite Indian opening every channel to talk to them the kidnappers didn’t leave any call-centre number for India to reach them.
The gave a 48-hour deadline to the Border Roads Organization, a Defence ministry organization that builds strategically important roads in border areas, to abandon its work and go home. Even the abduction and the subsequent news of Kutty’s murder were conveyed through a news agency on November 22, three days after he was abducted. They weren’t after ransom money. They just wanted us out and the road work to stop. Taliban-linked violence in Afghanistan has claimed 1,400 lives, including that of Kutty, this year. Kutty, who has been with the BRO for 16 years, was abducted along with three others. The incident raised a big question about the security of India’s overseas strategic interests. The BRO was involved with the construction of the 219-km road linking Delaram in Afghanistan with Zaranj in Iran. The road will provide landlocked Afghanistan an access to the Iranian ports of Chabahar and Bandarabbas. The road is also important for India, as Iran is the only entry point for India into Afghanistan.
It was this road and not Kutty who hails form Alappuzha district in Kerala that the kidnappers were after. Though New Delhi authorized Rakesh Sood, Indian ambassador to Afghanistan, to talk to the kidnappers, no one came forward to negotiate. Since the kidnappers left no number to call, Delhi had no option but to leave it to the Hamid Karzai government in Kabul to trace Kutty or his kidnappers. The kidnappers would have spared Kutty’s life only if India abandoned all its strategic interests in Afghan. However, it also appears that the abductors overplayed their cards. Undeterred by the cowardly and brutal murder of a brave Indian, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Conveyed to President Karzai India’s unshaken resolve to assist Afghan in rebuilding the country.
On the home front, the Central government promised Kutty’s family a Rs10-lakh compensation. His children’s would get free education up to the secondary level. Kutty’s wife would get a liberalized pension for life and a job in a public-sector undertaking. (This money and pension will not give them happy; it’s very hard to live without father). Meanwhile, in Afghan, work on some stretches of the road link has been suspended because of their isolation. But officials say the project will continue. Lt.-Gen. K.S. Rao, director-general of BRO, would soon leave for Afghan to inspect of his men, which is entrusted with the governor of Nimroz.
As many as 290 Indians are working on the road project alone. Many more work in scattered projects such as education, police training, hospital and civil transport. In fact, in some places like Mazar-e-Sharif, Heart, Shebargan and Kandaher, the only decent hospitals are those run by small Indian teams of four to six doctors, nurses and paramedics.
Our Indian went to Afghansitan to help them on the Development works; it’s the duty of Afghan government to give security for them, but they have failed to give security. When the Iraq militants kidnap 3 Indians the Central government take full action for there release, but this time terrorist dint give much time to think, so they have missed to take action.
Karzai is a good friend of India but sadly his government doesn't control most of the areas outside Kabul and his government & newly raised national army relies heavily on Americans, so Indian govt can't expect much from them. India is doing lot of good work in Afghanistan and when these projects are completed we will have access to remote areas. For transit of goods into Afghanistan, we need either permission of Pakistan or we should have access to ports in Iran. Recently, Pakistan didn't allow transit of consignment which contained biscuits, which were supposed to distributed among afghan children under UN program, from this it is clear that Pakistan doesn't like our presence in the region and Taliban being Pakistan's brain child, they are following Pakistan's agenda.
ReplyDeleteSome people say we have nothing against Taliban so we need to withdraw, but fact is that when Taliban ruled Afghanistan they were very hostile to India and sent their fighters into Kashmir and if they regain control of region, we may have to deal with them in Kashmir. Therefore instead of backing down, we need to take security of these workers under our control by providing them with security and continue in our efforts in rebuilding Afghanistan.
Shuuro – India is supporting Afghan and also recommended to join in SARRC countries. What should them must do, they should give security. If they can’t give security, they have can tell before, India will give them security.
ReplyDeleteWell said shuuro, I think Talibans don’t have there own brain. Because of this incident many Indians have panic to work for Afghan.
Whatever the country's interests are, an innocent man's life is lost. I think Indian government and the company he worked in failed to handle the issue properly.
ReplyDeleteA lot of money and offers poured in support of their family, that is good, but they lost a husband and a father.
India's good work in Afghanisthan is nothing different from America's interest in Iraq and other middle-east countries. The only difference is they do it in bigscale, coz they have the global-policing rights and we do it in small scale because we have to show Uncle Bush that we are with him in his 'war against terrorism'.
However we had to sacrifice a civilian's life to keep the not-so-essential greedy interest in Afghanisthan. That could have been avoided.
Jo,
ReplyDeleteCan you tell me what "greedy interest" we have in Afghanistan and why that the things we do in Afghanistan is no different than of things US does in middle east? to start with can you please tell me what you think we are doing there? or would you like to eat your words? :).
I say we have interest in Afghanistan but not greedy as you proclaim, we had strong relationship with elements of current government in the past too, that is even before US interfered in that region.
Is your allegiance to communism is too great that you choose to ignore taliban's threat to our national interest? Have you forgot mujahideens from Afghanistan operating in Kashmir.
Jeevan,
Afghanistan has provided bodyguards but it proved that they were not capable to handle threats posed to them. Karzai has repeatedly warned international community about the situation in his country but due to compulsions with pakistan, US couldn't do much, even when their soldiers were killed there. Indian govt could have dealt this incident proactively. We have some security personal posted their to protect our interest but not in number to do it effectively.
@Shuuro -- I think India 'helps' Afghanisthan to re-build, like US say they are helping Iraq & Afghanisthan to establish democracy in those countries. I'm not against the country's interests, but the government is primarily responsible to protect their fellow citizens. We could have avoided this situation. Atleast the company Maniyappan worked in could have ceased their work temporarily and negotiate with the terrorists.
ReplyDeleteI do not understand how you could read between the words that I ignore Taliban's or any other terrorist group's activities. So we should not negotiate with Talban to save a citizen's life and should let the killer have his prey?
Indiadaily.com says:
Taliban militia have killed the abducted Indian road engineer after his company failed to meet an ultimatum to cease operations in Afghanistan, a spokesman for the militants said on Tuesday.
So are you saying that its okay that Maniyappan was killed because of our interests in Afghanisthan?
A sad event tat sudnt happen again
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteJo,
ReplyDeleteYou wrote:
// India's good work in Afghanisthan is nothing different from America's interest in Iraq and other middle-east countries. The only difference is they do it in bigscale, coz they have the global-policing rights and we do it in small scale because we have to show Uncle Bush that we are with him in his 'war against terrorism'. //
I requested you to answer few questions in a hope to get further clarification with regards to your above statement but instead you choose to give vague reply and digressed from the topic by conjecturing my supposed views on securing release of kutty by Indian government, where as in all my previous posts were about convincing Jeevan that Afghanistan's government were not in a position to act, as i suppose that was the subject of this post as indicated by this blog's title and i haven't made any statement about kutty's murder was acceptable or not.
You have exposed your anti national views by giving moral equivalence to India's actions in Afghanistan with USA's unjust war and its aggressive policies in Iraq and most importantly you reduced India's good work in Afghanistan by saying that we need to show our loyalty to USA's war on terrorism by being involved in Afghanistan, Our relationship with Afghanistan is historic and its not specific to USA. You didn't write about so-called 'greedy interest' we have in there.
Secondly, Primary reason why USA came into Afghanistan is because of 9/11 and with intention to capture Osama and democracy is not their primary reason, you can't equate their actions in Afghanistan & Iraq. They entered Iraq with ulterior motives which were masqueraded by "war on terrorism", they got their self interest there but in Afghanistan there were forced by Taliban's reluctance to handover Osama. Most of the countries in the world supports their actions in Afghanistan but not in Iraq, so their is no logic in equating both wars.
Shuuro - What I have written here is my thought; this is not related to this post.
ReplyDeleteI don’t like to say the US war on Afghanistan and Iraq is right. Why they came to Afghan, to catch Osama, because he had killed many American’s. They have helped Afghan to come out from Taliban’s rule. But they catch Osama, no, and then what should they have done, just come out of Afghan, but they dint came and say they are searching for Osama. No one knows where he is, some one tells he is in Pakistan, Afghan or in POK now they say there are taking action against Taliban. Now Talibans show they angry on Indians.
In Iraq, they take war against because they told Iraq have Atomic weapons. But finally they get any weapons, No. But what they did they have killed many innocent people, in the search of Terrorist. They changed Iraq into a Dead Earth. I think US Troops should come out of Iraq and give the Iraq to them.
Some days back I was chat with my Afghan friend Nabi Hul, he told one day he will come on Television, when he fight against Pakistan. The Pakistan looks Afghan like there enemies. Now the Talibans are in the shelter of Pakistan, I read some months back in newspaper.
Awakening - Very sad incident happed to Kutty. the terrorist have killed him with out giving time to take action for his release.
ReplyDeleteJO - We should not compare India’s help with what US doing in Afghan and Iraq. We like to help them, because the current government have a friendly relationship with India. Because of this friendship we have lost out Friend. There is only one-way save the world from terrorist is all countries should join hands to hunt all Terrorist, (only terrorist, not innocent people) we have any Idea? The UN should decide that.
ReplyDeletethe taliban have regrouped and r waging a gorilla kind of war.defeating these pests is going 2 be very difficult.well written jeevan!
ReplyDeleteCan you tell me what "greedy interest" we have in Afghanistan and why that the things we do in Afghanistan is no different than of things US does in middle east? to start with can you please tell me what you think we are doing there?
ReplyDeleteAlthough it says that we help Afghanistan to re-construct at the top of the table, the hidden agenda is to have a strong control over that nation. USA has the same interests for invading Iraq and Afghanistan. I read somewhere that USA was the first to promote Taliban with armoury to fight against the Russian troups at the times of cold war. Pakistan and ISI came to involve later. (Please correct me if I'm wrong in this). I see no difference in the interests of US and India in Afghanistan. But as you said, it is essential for us to fight against Taliban. I'm not against that interests. BUT still, it killed an innocent man.
Primary reason why USA came into Afghanistan is because of 9/11 and with intention to capture Osama and democracy is not their primary reason, you can't equate their actions in Afghanistan & Iraq.
Why didn't they do anything in Pakistan? Osama is hiding in Pakistan according to some sources, a lot of militants operate from Pakistan, so why wouldn't they do anything against them? And what progress did they make in Afghanistan in capturing Osama? Taliban is still a stong-hold in the some Afghan areas and US seems to slowed-down their operations in Afghan. US want to hang around the region for long, cause they are trying to have the base camps in evey possible country in Asia, because China is becoming a super power.
My main point in the comments were about how the government handled the issue and you derived form the subject. I think that's what we have to discuss here.
1st comment:
Whatever the country's interests are, an innocent man's life is lost. I think Indian government and the company he worked in failed to handle the issue properly.
2nd comment:
I'm not against the country's interests, but the government is primarily responsible to protect their fellow citizens. We could have avoided this situation. Atleast the company Maniyappan worked in could have ceased their work temporarily and negotiate with the terrorists.
No wonder you called me 'anti-national', there are people in USA who call Naom Chomsky and others who criticize their goverment's decisions for good.
Jeevan,
ReplyDelete1) As far as morality is concerned War in Afghanistan and Iraq are not same. US did good thing by dislodging barbaric Taliban from power. War in Afghanistan has mandate of many countries.
2) US can't leave Afghanistan just like that because Taliban is still at large due to pakistan and Afghan national army is too weak and they need time to become strong. UN and NATO operate in Afghanistan. Presence of international forces was requested by afghan government themselves, infact they requested more financial aid and support in terms of increased troops in their country.
3) In September's election held under UN, 5,800 candidates contested as independents and even women took part in this election. This helped to form a representative government, new assembly would convene in December after they appointed members to Meshrano Jirga and Americans are not ruling Afghanistan. In fact many of US soldiers are dying fighting taliban, lets give credit where its due and criticize bad things they do but don't paint everything with same brush!.
Jo,
For your information, Afghan government has strong relationship with India and many Northern alliance members had considerable stay in India during rule of Taliban, importantly karzai himself was educated in India, due to this they have lot of indian influence on them. Afghanistan government is pro-India and we don't need to have any hidden agenda to have influence on that region. What we are doing is humanitarian help and some of them are sponsored under flag of UN. Our ventures include constructing basic health care, providing facilities for primary education, infrastructure and we are training bureaucrats(first assignment we under took was to train diplomats in India), police officers, under UN we are helping children & others with different schemes. Still you fail to mention what made you to state that we have greedy interest in Afghanistan.
You wrote:
// I see no difference in the interests of US and India in Afghanistan. //
I think you scaled it down a bit But contention which i have is with your previous statement:
// India's good work in Afghanistan is nothing different from America's interest in Iraq and other middle-east countries. The only difference is they do it in bigscale,coz they have the global-policing rights and we do it in small scale because we have to show Uncle Bush that we are with him in his 'war against terrorism'. //
Here you made a comparison which is highly unethical and illogical. I requested you to provide reasons to support such a anti national views that you hold but you have said nothing to justify them. I specifically posted regarding objections i have over points in your post and i've no interest in your main points of the post. If you want to know my opinion on main points of your post or some other issue, then its fine for me to oblige but first we need to clear things on this subject before jumping on to other issues, otherwise we will digress without any gain of knowledge from this whole exercise.
Seriously, what you wrote is not criticism but mere allegations. Criticism is something where you provide reasons for your disapproval. Here you are not willing to substantiate your own statements. So there is no point in comparing this case with criticism which Noam Chomsky or anyone receives.
Siddharth – The Iraq terrorist are better than Taliban, they are telling their condition and giving time, but talibans don’t have much knowledge it think. I don’t any thing about gorilla. Thanks friend. See my comment box; there was a big war between Jo and Shuuro.
ReplyDeleteShuuro:
ReplyDeleteAlthough it says that we help Afghanistan to re-construct at the top of the table, the hidden agenda is to have a strong control over that nation. USA has the same interests for invading Iraq and Afghanistan.
Does this not answer your question? I said this out of common sense. Not based on a paper proof. I think none of the countries publish their classifieds.
Now read this:
I see no difference in the interests of US and India in Afghanistan. But as you said, it is essential for us to fight against Taliban. I'm not against that interests. BUT still, it killed an innocent man.
@Jeevan -- There is no war going on between me and Shuuro. :-) This is the best way to learn new things. :-)
Jo - i was just but it as a fun, really i too like to read u r comments and grow my knowledge of our relationship between India and Afghan.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by a blog administrator.
ReplyDeleteHere are the points which i think you didn't answer me, if you think you haven't said any one of these then please let me know i will provide you with excerpt from your post, which i had already quoted in all most all comments.
ReplyDelete1) What you said is that India's presence in Afghanistan is to show our loyalty towards uncle bush that we are with him in "War on Terrorism".
2) You also said that we have "greedy interest" in that country but till now you haven't made it clear about that interest. In your later posts you said that we have hidden agenda, well in my previous post, i pointed out that current afghan govt is favorable to us and many of its members, including president himself is already sympathetic to India and we do have considerable influence there. Every country in the world, invests something in its friendly country to do some good work in order to obtain goodwill. Well, hidden agenda is where one expects something tangible in return for their actions, do we get anything tangible with our investments in that country!?.
3) You said we do policing around in our neighborhood as America does but in small scale, standard term "global policing" is used by communists & others to refer USA's bullying. Is this what you mean with reference to India or something else?
4) US invasion of Afghanistan and Iraq happened for different reasons, one was just and other was unjust and by comparing India's actions in Afghanistan with something that is unjust & filled with ulterior motives in Iraq is unethical and illogical comparison. of-course according to Islamic fanatics, afghan war is also unjust but majority of the world doesn't agree with them.