K.P. Nayar spells it out as the prime minister, Manmohan Singh prepares to visit Washington:
Notwithstanding New Delhi’s known opposition to bracketing India along with Pakistan and Afghanistan, there are many policy-makers in the Obama administration who believe that the US cannot win the war in Afghanistan unless they also push for a solution to Kashmir and that the problem of a failing state in Pakistan cannot be adequately addressed unless New Delhi and Islamabad are nudged towards a reconciliation...
...there is lack of comprehension now in New Delhi that the Obama administration intends to eventually legitimize the Taliban: what Washington is looking for is a way to put the best front on that eventuality and justify such an about-turn...
Read the full piece at the Telegraph
C. Raja Mohan adds:
...the cynical view of the prime minister’s visit to Washington is that it will be long on rhetoric but short on substance. But the unfolding developments in Afghanistan and Pakistan are too consequential for the national security of both India and the United States for their leaders to waste the opportunity for thinking at the highest levels about political cooperation on stabilising the north-western parts of the Subcontinent.
Read on at the Indian Express