Business interests compete with human rights concerns in forging Burma policies
Burma has shot back to the top of India’s foreign policy agenda following Indian President APJ Abdul Kalam’s visit last month, and battle lines are now being drawn in New Delhi over the contentious question of how to deal with the military junta.
The military establishment in India and its business community have started fresh lobbying in New Delhi to keep the country’s Burma policy of dealing with the generals on course. But human rights groups in the country and many smaller political parties want the government to come out in direct support of Burma’s pro-democracy movement.
In recent weeks, New Delhi has come under substantial US pressure to join the international community in urging the Burmese junta to restore democracy.
During his visit to New Delhi in early March, US President George W Bush discussed the issue of Burma’s “increased human rights violations” with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and both leaders called for the release of opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from house detention without any further delay. But Singh assiduously refrained from issuing a call for the return of democracy to Burma—unlike his late predecessor, Rajiv Gandhi in 1988.
Instead, the Indian president only “offered help” to Burmese military strongman Snr-Gen Than Shwe with “political and administrative training for restoring democratic institutions”—a roundabout way of suggesting India would like Burma to return to democratic ways.
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