Talk, don8217;t serenade

In becoming the first country to host a top general of Myanmar8217;s military regime after its brutal crackdown on protesting monks last September, India lays bare the growing tension in its foreign policy between the untrammelled pursuit of strategic interests and its national commitment to the values of liberty and freedom. General Maung Aye, who is in New Delhi for four days starting today, is expected to sign agreements for the development of the Sittwe port and the implementation of the multi-modal transportation project along the Kaladan River that links India8217;s Northeast with the Bay of Bengal. Both these projects smacks of geopolitics. They facilitate better connectivity for the north-eastern provinces. New Delhi can also breathe easy that the Chinese have been edged out of the Sittwe port project that Beijing has so desperately coveted. In return, the generals hope to get India8217;s political support for a flawed roadmap for democracy that perpetuates their military dominance over Myanmar and bars the opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi from participating in the political process.

New Delhi has outlined a three-fold argument in refusing to isolate the current Myanmar8217;s military government that is hated by its own people and reviled by the international community. One, neighbours don8217;t have the luxury of turning their backs on governments that do not measure up to international norms. While distant nations can take pure positions on internal affairs of others, neighbours have no option but to maintain a level of constant engagement. Two, India8217;s economic and security stakes are too high to allow a coercive policy against Myanmar. Finally, New Delhi reminds its international interlocutors that its decision in the late 1980s to cut itself off allowed a massive penetration of northern Myanmar by the Chinese communists.

Many within India, not to speak of the Western governments and Burmese dissidents, are appalled at the extreme realpolitik that defines India8217;s Burma policy. To be sure, New Delhi must not allow expediency to silence its reservations about the generals8217; conduct. A free, democratic India cannot simply eliminate political values from the conduct of its external relations. The least India can do is to insist on a more credible roadmap for democracy that allows the full participation of Suu Kyi. India must also press for an international supervision of the next month8217;s referendum on the constitutional charter.