Strategic gains as term I used for those forces which india have been financing and can be observed as supporting diplomatically , Its not a hidden fact that India want to encircle those forces through Afghanistan which they consider as threat to their national security .
That was the basic interest that enforced you to have your presence in Afghan territory.
Im sure you understand the Isolated nature of Middle east excluding Gulf and North African region. Now Afghan itself are in isolated state , and many militant groups among which few are supporting government at present but their stance in future is unpredictable , Im referring towards local Land lords those can change their loyalty according to scenario and their interests . No doubt, India is trying to reconstruct their infrastructure but Is that was the real cause of Indian presence. A plane statement about Afghan stability is not enough cuz NATO itself gives the same statement about regional stability and etc , and they are leaving afghan in 2014 means that they accept that their present doesnt changed anything . Do you believe that the presence of few hundred Indian troops (At maximum) would help afghan to assist afghan security forces and could keep Taliban away from Kabul , You may have seen the reports of Afghan security men shooting their allies of NATO forces. Even NATO is struggling in assistance of Local security forces. Your own consulate security is not guaranteed their how can you speak about Afghan security, forget Afghan just Kabuls security even cannot be guaranteed .
Afghanistan metamorphosed into the ground zero of terrorism under the taliban, it became a threat for every country in the world, so it became imperative a few countries do their bit in pulling Afghan people and their country out of this quagmire. Foreign forces partially succeeded in taking out the Taliban from Afghanistan but we all know that it's not enough, the whole Afghan building process is complicated and there are no easy solutions for it - it required first to give them hope, give them jobs, an economy, desperately needed infrastructure, education, culture and the works. It's time now that foreign forces withdraw themselves from the security duties and Afghan forces themselves have evinced keen interest in taking up their own security by themselves but there are various limitations that one encounters in boosting Afghanistan's security forces.
Decades of war has ruined their economy, they don't have any industry and an economy of 9 billion or so is not enough to fuel their security forces, foreign countries can do only so much and they have done as best as they could to raise a credible armed force in Afghanistan - one that - though having a number of pitfalls and short of equipment are eager to take up internal and external security of Afghanistan, the limitations faced by us is that Afghan society needed to be built from the ground up and there has been some modest development in that.
Training and recruitment is needed and this is being administered by various countries including India, their forces will require a lot of help the coming few years and some countries including India are geared up to provide that.
It takes a lot of time and effort and money to build an army from the ground up and this is what's been happening in Afghanistan, Afghans needed to be introduced to something other than what they have been facing all these years in all spheres of life - they need a constitution - democratic values - an industry - an economy - jobs and education for it's people, so that they can sustain themselves from here on.
India has played its part and the Afghan people appreciate what we have done for them, we haven't put boots on the ground because we approached the Afghan problem from the people's perspective.
India did not aspire for any strategic gain in Afghanistan - because we know it's pointless and drag us into decades of warfare which we cannot control and we know the Afghan mindset well enough.
As for Pakistan's reservations of it being strategically strangled or that we have anything to do with what's happening at the moment in Pakistan is just false theories and other than chuck hagel's civilian statement - you haven't provided any credible proof for it.
