- Saturday, March 01, 2025
New Delhi would have a tough balancing act in hand in either accepting or rejecting the Taliban appointment.
By: Shubham Ghosh
The Narendra Modi government has found itself in a tricky situation after the Taliban regime of Afghanistan decided to recall Afghanistan’s ambassador to India Farid Mamundzay and replace him with current trade counsellor Qadir Shah as the chargé d’affaires (acting ambassador).
If New Delhi rejects the Taliban’s appointment, it could have consequences for India’s “technical mission” in Kabul where the Taliban stormed back to power in August 2021, The Hindu said in a report. On the other hand, if the Modi government accepts the appointment, it would be viewed as handing over the embassy in Delhi to the extremist group which has not received official recognition from any nation yet.
Countries such as Russia, Pakistan, China, Iran and those from central Asia have allowed Taliban-appointed diplomats to run the missions. They have also permitted raising the Taliban or “Islamic Emirates of Afghanistan” flag rather than that of the previous “Islamic Republic of Afghanistan” which was democratically elected.
Afghanistan’s diplomatic tug-of-war came to the open on Sunday (14) after media outlets of the land-locked nation published a letter from India-based Afghans accusing the current ambassador and other officials of indulging in corrupt practices, the Hindu report added.
Mamundzay, who has been serving as the envoy since 2020, also issued a letter in response in which he called the allegations “one-sided, biased and untruthful”.
The diplomat also blamed the “collapse of the democratic system” in Afghanistan for the country’s “extreme problems” today. The Afghan embassy also “categorically rejected” the claims of Shah to lead the mission in a statement issued on Monday.
The Hindu cited diplomatic sources as saying that trouble was growing within the embassy over the past month after the Taliban foreign affairs ministry’s human resources chief issued a letter recalling Mamundzay and asking him to report to the ministry in the Afghan capital.
The same day witnessed another order by Taliban foreign minister Amir Khan Muttaqi that said that Shah would “supervise affairs at the Afghanistan Embassy in Delhi, India” and report to the Afghan government in Kabul.
Later, Shah tried to assume office as the chargé d’affaires but it was resisted by other embassy staff members. He has not been allowed to enter the embassy since.
Mamundzay, who returned from London earlier this month, is still in the ambassador’s office and reportedly met officials from India’s external affairs ministry.
The Indian ministry refused to make any remark on the Taliban decision, with officials indicating that this was an “internal” matter for the Afghan embassy to resolve, The Hindu reported.
However, the report added that the Indian ministry’s decision not to take a side suggests a softening of stance towards the Taliban from the past, when it fully supported the embassy representing the erstwhile “Islamic Republic of Afghanistan”.
The ministry also did not respond over whether it would allow the Taliban flag to be raised at the embassy, the report added.
