GAME TWO: Rabbani (left) and Lambah. India was first to resume diplomatic contact.

Tea, tents, prosthetics and five tonnes of medicines. And a mysterious cardboard box. Resumption of diplomatic ties hopes to fuel, with things such as these, India's goodwill march. The medicines and doctors figure prominently in this scheme of things, but the little cardboard box may steal the thunder from them: it's chicken soup for the oppressed soul, in the form of Bollywood movies.

Five years ago, the Indian mission in Kabul was evacuated barely 12 hours before the Taliban entered the city. Last Wednesday's Ilyushin-76, which flew via Iran, was the first Indian flight to Afghanistan since then not counting the hijacked IC 814 and Jaswant Singh's subsequent trip to Kandahar. The establishment of a diplomatic liaison cell in Kabul, headed by Gautam Mukhopadhyay, goes beyond the stated cause of coordinating Indian humanitarian assistance to post-Taliban Afghanistan. India's Afghanistan envoy S.K. Lambah has already met Northern Alliance leaders including UN recognised Afghan President Burhanuddin Rabbani and the powerful defence minister, Mohammed Fahim Khan.

Putting the diplomatic initiative in place even before the political scenario in Afghanistan is sorted out means that India wants to help the Northern Alliance form a multi-ethnic government in Kabul. The liaison cell will also help India monitor the battles for Kunduz and Kandahar, where the Taliban, backed by Pakistani regulars and ex-servicemen is fighting for survival. With Delhi re-opening its Kabul mission, key countries supporting the Northern Alliance-Russia, India and Iran-have positioned themselves to influence events in Afghanistan.

The Indian decision was swift with Mukhopadhyay and his team being sent to Afghanistan with a satellite phone as the only communication link to Delhi. The liaison officer's name was cleared hours before the team landed at Bagram airbase near Kabul.

India has also pledged one million tonnes of wheat for Afghanistan. The medical component of the liaison cell is expected to revive the Indira Gandhi Hospital for Women and Children in Kabul. India has been running a hospital at Farkhor in Tajikistan all along. The Indian diplomats and security officials now in Kabul are expected to send a "definitive assessment" of the state of political play in Afghanistan to Delhi. They will also suggest ways to how India could involve itself in the reconstruction of Afghanistan and reach out to different ethnic groups there.

During the Taliban regime, Russia, Iran and India backed the Northern Alliance. India continued to recognise the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan and had Masood Khalili, right hand man of assassinated Alliance commander Ahmed Shah Masood, as its friend there. The only Indian diplomatic contact with the Taliban was during the IA hijacking.

The Indian initiative has come soon after Pakistan proposed a bilateral initiative with Iran in Afghanistan. Islamabad's desire to jointly work was conveyed by President Pervez Musharraf during his 45-minute halt in Teheran on his way to address the UN General Assembly. However, Teheran apparently reminded Islamabad of its links with the Taliban and the killing of Iranian diplomats during the fall of Mazar-e-Sharif in 1997. While rejecting the initiative, Iran said it was all for maintaining links with Pakistan on any Afghan initiative within the UN framework. It is perhaps in light of this that Delhi has kept the Kabul cell directly under its control. Now over to mission goodwill hunting.