News-9 Jan 13: AUNG SAN SUU KYI VISIT TO INDIA

MYANMARESE OPPOSITION LEADER AUNG SAN SUU KYI'S VISIT TO INDIA

 • India, Suu Kyi look to bury the past.

• Her party is tipped to sweep the 2015 polls.

• She says: Mahatma would have insisted India stand by us.

 

Myanmarese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi paid a goodwill visit to India in the second week of November, 2012. It was a homecoming as well as a reconciliation. The iconic Myanmar democracy leader, she caught up with friends in India, visited her alma mater, Lady Sri Ram College, even the Myanmar embassy where she stayed with her mother who was Burma's ambassador to India.

In her first visit to India in over 40 years, Suu Kyi and India both tried to put an uncomfortable past behind them. Suu Kyi's imprisonment shut off Myanmar from the rest of the world as condemnation was heaped on the military regime. India, though, engaged the Tatmadaw extensively, so much so that after China, India has become one of Myanmar's most important partners.

To that extent, it has been a hurdle that India, a beacon of democracy itself, should abandon the world's greatest living champion on democracy next door. It has been a difficult decision for India, and one that has antagonised the western world.

India's awkwardness with Suu Kyi was evident in June, when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Yangon. Not wanting to annoy the military, the PM's office insisted that Suu Kyi call on Singh, even though a long line of world leaders had visited her in her now famous house by the lake. It was clumsy move, and India's explanation that protocol triumphed everything found few takers.

Therefore, it was really important for a big reconciliation process, especially after Suu Kyi herself described India's actions as 'disappointing'. That week, Suu Kyi received a reception reserved for a head of state as she arrived for a six-day visit. From a private dinner by the PM to a public lecture and scores of high-level interactions in between, Suu Kyi was feted in a particularly special way. India remains actively engaged with the military in Myanmar, because the government believes it will remain the most important player in Myanmar for some time to come.

In the next round of elections in 2015, Suu Kyi's party NLD is expected to sweep.

 

 

'Mahatma would'nt have Favoured India's Stand' said Suu Kyi  

Myanmar's prodemocracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi said that had Mahatma Gandhi been alive he would have been 'vocal' about his 'disapproval' of India's stand regarding her country.

For the Nobel Prize winner Suu Kyi, Gandhi has been one of the greatest influences. "I think he (Gandhi) would have stood by us...he would have insisted that India stand by us because that was the kind of man he was," she said.

Suu Kyi said she felt 'saddened' about India's stand particularly because she felt close to India and hoped New Delhi will stand by her country in achieving democracy.

However, Suu Kyi later that one has to be pragmatic about it because "I know that governments sometimes take a path which is best for their country rather than best for others."

Asked if she felt betrayed given her long association in India, the chairperson of the National League for Democracy replied in negative.

To a poser, Suu Kyi, who has strongly advocated amendments in Myanmar's constitution for free and fair elections, said she has no hesitation for standing for the presidency in next polls.