"As a contiguous neighbour and a well-wisher of the Afghan people, India has a deep interest in your development and progress," India's foreign minister S Jaishankar told his Afghan counterpart Amir Khan Muttaqi during the latter's visit to India.
Muttaqi, who was granted a temporary exemption from UN sanctions allowing him to travel - flew into Delhi from Russia.
One striking part of this new found bonhomie between Talibans and New Delhi is an astonishing fact that neither Islamabad, Delhi or the Taliban in Kabul could have anticipated that so soon after taking power in 2021, the Taliban's relations with Pakistan would deteriorate to such a low ebb.
This has threatened to change the entire geo-strategic games in South Asia and hence India-Talibans ties have forced people to raise eyebrows.
Moscow is the only established global capital that has so far fully recognised the Taliban government. The Modi Govt's engagements with the Talibans in Kabul after regime change in 2021 is adhoc and limited, generally confined to humanitarian and infra development works.
The right wing Modi Govt - which otherwise faces charges of being anti-Pakistan and anti-Muslim, seems to be indicating about its seriousness for upgrading diplomatic, political and trade links with the Talibans.
Thus, the Afghan delegation led by their foreign minister came as part of a "pragmatic" diplomatic policy of the Indian Govt under Narendra Modi,
But a minor episode by the Talibans during the Delhi visit left a rather bitter and blatant display of misogyny.
The women journalists in India's capital were not "invited or allowed" in the Afghan embassy when the visiting dignitary hosted a so-called press conference.
The exclusion drew sharp condemnation from journalists and politicians with everyone calling it misogynistic and unacceptable.
There was a political twist as well.
Opposition Congress MP Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, sister of party's face principal challenger to Narendra Modi - Rahul Gandhi, targeted the federal Govt in Delhi over Muttaqi's press conference where women scribes were not permitted to attend.
She questioned how the Modi government could claim it is committed to women's empowerment if such insults towards female journalists were allowed in India.
"Prime Minister @narendramodi ji, please clarify your position on the removal of female journalists from the press conference of the representative of the Taliban on his visit to India," Priyanka said on micro blogging site X.
The central government has clarified it had no role for an event hosted by the Afghan embassy.
"The Govt of India or India's foreign ministry had no involvement in the press interaction held by the Afghan foreign minister in Delhi," said an official source in the Ministry of External Affairs.
The general understanding is that as is practiced globally "an embassy" is a foreign country's exclusive domain or territory and so things were beyond India's foreign ministry's jurisdiction.
This happens globally.
However, Priyanka Gandhi Vadra's brother Rahul Gandhi, who is Leader of the Opposition in Indian Lower House of parliament, said -
“When you allow the exclusion of women journalists from a public forum, you are telling every woman in India that you are too weak to stand up for them".
The Indian government has "dishonoured every single Indian woman" by allowing the Taliban minister to exclude women journalists from his presser. "Shameful bunch of spineless hypocrites" Mahua Moitra, a woman lawmaker from provincial Trinamool Congress, tweeted.
"Right under the Indian government's nose, in the heart of the capital city, the Afghan Foreign Minister Muttaqi holds a press conference, intentionally excluding any female journalists. How can this be allowed? Who approved such an outrageous disregard for representation?," asked author and journalist Nayanima Basu in a post on X.
New Delhi used to support the Western-backed Afghan government, which the Taliban drove from power in 2021. Hence this visit illustrates pragmatism and realpolitik on both sides, Muttaqi, accompanied by Afghan trade and foreign ministry officials, held detailed talks with India's foreign minister Dr Jaishankar in Delhi on Friday.
"Closer cooperation between us contributes to your national development as well as regional stability and resilience," Jaishankar said. For his part, Muttaqi called India a "close friend" and added that his visit would improve relations between the two countries.
The Afghan delegation also met representatives of the Indian business community. This breaking of ice and so much openly is being interpreted as positive signals by both New Delhi and Kabul now under Talibans.
It goes without stating that this particular trip of the Afghan delegation came against a backdrop of worsening ties between both India and Pakistan, and Pakistan and the Taliban government.
"The deterioration in ties with Pakistan also allows them [Taliban] to hedge their bets and show how it is no longer dependent on Islamabad for its survival - carving out an identity separate from their over-dependence on Pakistan," Harsh V Pant and Shivam Shekhawat, of the Observer Research Foundation think tank, wrote in a piece for NDTV website.
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