India Honors Najibullah as Soviet Pullout Nears

Ten days before Soviet troops are scheduled to begin withdrawing from his country, President Najibullah of Afghanistan met Wednesday with Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi at the start of a visit intended to boost the Kabul regime’s morale.

Najibullah and Gandhi held talks for more than two hours after an ornate welcoming ceremony, the first of its kind for the Afghan leader because India is one of the few countries outside the Soviet Bloc to recognize his government. The ceremony, which included a full honor-guard review and a 21-gun salute, was held in the same huge garden where British viceroys once greeted their monarchs.

“We accept these flowers of friendship from India,” said the burly Afghan leader, wearing a heavy black suit and perspiring in the 100-degree-plus heat of the scorching dry season.

On Wednesday evening, Najibullah was the guest of honor at a state dinner given by President Ramaswami Venkataraman. He will remain in New Delhi through Friday.

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U.S. officials contend that the Najibullah government cannot stand without the support of Soviet troops and will fall quickly once the estimated 115,000 Soviet soldiers are withdrawn. Western diplomats here expressed irritation with the Indian government for entertaining Najibullah and lending an aura of legitimacy to his regime. But Indian officials sought to justify the visit and the elaborate greeting under the “ties of friendship which have been shared for centuries by our two countries.”

Privately, Indian officials say they fear that Islamic fundamentalists among the moujahedeen rebels fighting Afghan government forces will take power in Kabul and turn against the Indians, mostly merchants, who live there. For this reason, they say, they hope the Najibullah party will retain a role in the postwar government.

The Indian government also apparently hopes that by entertaining the Afghan leader, it will win favor with the Soviet Union, which has struggled for years to increase international acceptance of the Kabul regime.

This is the second visit to India for Najibullah, a former secret police chief who was installed as general secretary of the People’s Democratic Party of Afghanistan in 1986. His first, last December, was extremely low-key.

But despite the traditional pomp, the Indians seemed to take care to appear fairly remote from the Afghan regime. Gandhi offered Najibullah only a stiff handshake, at full arm’s length, rather than the traditional embrace of comrades. President Venkataraman was careful in his remarks at dinner Wednesday to praise only general Afghan goals, not any specific programs directed by Najibullah.