The government is committed to bringing back each and every Indian from Taliban-ruled Afghanistan, external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar said on Thursday after chairing an all-party meeting that lasted over three hours on the turbulent situation in the neighbouring nation. Also present at the meeting were parliamentary affairs minister Prahlad Joshi and leader of the House in the Rajya Sabha Piyush Goyal.
A total of 37 leaders from 31 parties attended, almost everyone got a chance to speak and the minister responded to them individually, said sources. Most of the questions were about the evacuation process. Those present included Adhir Ranjan Chowdhury, Mallikarjun Kharge and Anand Sharma from the Congress, Professor Saugata Roy and Sukhendu Sekhar Roy from the Trinamool Congress, DMK MPs TR Baalu and Tiruchi Siva, A Navaneethakrishnan from the AIADMK, former defence minister and NCP chief Sharad Pawar, former Prime Minister of India and JD(S) leader HD Deve Gowda, the BJD’s Prasanna Acharya, TRS’s Nama Nageswara Rao, Jayadev Galla from the TDP, CPI MP Binoy Viswam and MP and AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi among others.
At the start of the meeting, foreign minister Jaishankar briefed the parliamentarians about the situation that exists in Afghanistan and what India’s role has been so far. A presentation was also made by foreign secretary Harsh Shringla.
Jaishankar observed that all the leaders had a similar view on the matter and there was a strong national position on Afghanistan. He said that six evacuation flights had been operated, the latest one on Thursday morning. Most Indians, not all, have been brought back, he said, assuring that everyone will be evacuated. He also informed that some Afghan citizens too have been pulled out. India has also instituted an e-visa policy, the minister pointed out. Jaishankar said efforts were on to ensure India’s interests/role/diplomacy were recognised at the international level and that New Delhi was in touch with many partners. In the last two days, Russian President Vladimir Putin and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have spoken to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, he informed, adding that there will be some other calls at the foreign minister-level.
As far as India’s policy on Afghanistan was concerned, Jaishankar said after the meeting, “It is an evolving situation and I request everybody to be patient so that once the situation normalises we can tell you what India’s stand about Taliban is.”
While most of the leaders congratulated the government on its stand and evacuation efforts in Afghanistan, Kharge said it was unfortunate that Prime Minister Modi was not present in such an important meeting. He added that it was a bad precedent being set by the government because in the past PM Atal Bihari Vajpayee attended the all-party meeting when such an incident took place.
Speaking to the media after the meeting RSP lawmaker NK Premachandran said, “The biggest takeaway was that India is committed to bringing back all Indians from Afghanistan and that India is observing a wait-and-watch policy.”
Binoy Vishwam, however, added that it’s not been told until when India would pursue this policy.
Owaisi asked the government why it did not act when the situation started emerging in 2020. In the meeting, Jaishankar said that adequate steps were taken and the government was constantly monitoring the situation and advisories were repeatedly issued, which some people adhered to. “India has made an effort to bring back the maximum number of people till now and I will continue to make the effort till the last person is back,” he said.
Pawar appreciated the steps taken by the government on evacuation through Operation Devi Shakti.
On the contentious issue of the deportation of Afghan MP Rangina Kargar from India, Jaishankar said it could have been a case of misunderstanding, miscommunication, or error and it was deeply regretted. Kargar arrived at Delhi airport on August 20 from Istanbul on a Fly Dubai flight. However, she was not let out of the airport as immigration officials asked her to wait. The Afghan MP alleged that she was deported from the airport two hours after reaching Delhi and was sent back by the same airline to Istanbul via Dubai.
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