New Delhi: Reflecting tremendous goodwill of its soft power in Afghanistan, India has been voted as the most favoured country, getting 71 per cent votes in an opinion poll there while Pakistan was viewed favourably by a meagre 2 per cent of the people.
The poll, commissioned by BBC, American Broadcasting
Company (ABC) and German Broadcasting company ARD, showed
India was way ahead of all other countries, including the US
which is leading the war against terror there.
In the poll conducted between December 11 and 23 last
year, Germany polled 59 per cent and stood at second spot. The
US came third with 51 per cent polls, Iran followed with
50 per cent votes and Britain got 39 per cent.
Pakistan managed only two per cent votes, according to
the survey conduced by Kabul-based Afghan Centre for
Socio-Economic Opinion Research (ACSOR).
The vote in favour of India is seen as a reflection of
the goodwill because of the developmental activities
undertaken by it on a large scale in the war-ravaged country.
India has developmental assistance programmes to the
tune of USD 1.3 billion that covers road construction,
healthcare, power sector and across-the-board capacity
building in Afghanistan.
The results echoed the findings of a gallup survey of
Afghanistan released in November in which 56 per cent of the
people voted for India when asked which group or country
played the best role in resolving the situation in
Afghanistan.
In fact, India surpassed even the UN and NATO by a per
cent in this regard.
PTI
