No official response has been given by the Ministry of External Affairs on this. However, Indian sources are not calling it a training organized specifically for the Taliban. Sources say that this is an online training program run by IIM under the supervision of the Ministry of External Affairs and it is open to diplomats from different countries. It is not only for Afghanistan and no one has been stopped from participating in it.

This training program is from the Indian Institute of Technical and Economic Cooperation (ITEC) under IIM Kozhikode, which has been named Immersing with Indian Thought. According to ITEC’s tweet, the Emerging with Indian Thought training program is to give foreign delegates from different fields a deeper understanding of Indian business, environment, cultural heritage and regulatory ecosystem.

According to the information received, Taliban diplomats will participate in this training program online from the Afghan Institute of Diplomacy in Kabul and not by coming to India. An Afghan journalist living in Canada after the Taliban capture has claimed in his tweet along with the Taliban government memo that this is a special training program for the Taliban by the Indian government. It will be important to see what effect this training has on improving the governance of the Taliban.

It is worth mentioning that earlier when there was an elected government in Afghanistan, India has been training diplomats and military officers there. India has not yet recognized the Taliban government. However, by opening the Indian Embassy in Kabul in June last year itself, India has maintained the presence of a technical team there. Apart from this, as a humanitarian aid, India has sent more than thousands of tonnes of wheat to the people of Afghanistan.