DAYS AFTER Taliban government members in Kabul attended an online course from IIM Kozhikode organised under a Ministry of External Affairs-run programme, India maintained on Thursday that its policy on not recognising the Taliban regime in Kabul has not changed.
It further stated that there had been no official diplomatic correspondence on the subject.
According to Arindam Bagchi, the official spokeswoman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Indian side does not provide any note verbale to any entities that are not recognised by New Delhi.
“India has been offering capacity development support to underdeveloped countries worldwide through the ITEC (Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation) project. “This includes online classes,” he explained.
According to Bagchi, these scholarship courses cover a wide range of disciplines and are offered by several Indian colleges.
“These courses are also open to nationals of other countries, including Afghanistan. “A number of Afghan citizens have participated in these ITEC courses, both in India and in Afghanistan,” Bagchi said. “Of course, no journey to India is required for the online classes.”
The MEA official stated that India’s view on Taliban rule has not changed.
“Our perspective on the developments in Afghanistan has not altered. I do not believe anything should be read into ITEC courses in this regard. We would never issue note verbales, which are inter-governmental notes, to unrecognised entities,” he stated.
Members of the Taliban regime in Kabul took part in an unprecedented four-day online ‘India immersion’ training that began on Tuesday. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs provides it through IIM Kozhikode.
The ‘Immersing with Indian Ideas, an India Immersion Program’ course is established by the Indian Technical and Economic Cooperation, a section of the MEA that implements capacity-building projects in partner nations.
The Afghan Foreign Ministry’s Institute of Diplomacy reportedly instructed officials in Kabul to enrol for the ITEC course, which was to be sponsored by the Indian Institute of Management (IIM), Kozhikode.
The ITEC is the Ministry of Foreign Affairs major capacity-building platform. ITEC, which was founded in 1964, is one of the oldest institutionalised organisations for international capacity building, having trained over 200,000 officials from over 160 nations in both the civilian and defence sectors.
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