Reflecting tremendous goodwill of its soft power in Afghanistan, India has been voted as the most favoured country, getting 71% votes in an opinion poll there while Pakistan was viewed favourably by a meagre 2% 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% and stood at second spot. The US came third with 51% polls, Iran followed with 50% votes and Britain got 39%.
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 US$ 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% 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.
