Befriending the junta

Burma is the starkest example of a closed society in Southasia. An oppressive regime continues to hold sway over the country. Respect for human rights is, for all purposes, an alien concept. Rule of law, based on universal and just principles, finds no place in the firmament of the generals. What is as striking as the primitive brutality of the rulers is the manner in which they seem to have gotten away with it all. In the wake of ruthless suppression, the democratic opposition has been brave, but till now fairly ineffectual in shaking the system. And the international community, to a large extent, has accepted the fait accompli of a dictatorship in the country.

In the mid-1990s, during the time of the Bharatiya Janata Party government, India joined the league of countries that wanted to be friends with the junta. New Delhi sought to build strong ties – spanning political, economic and even military spheres – with Burma, much to the chagrin of many Indian politicians and liberals, who have long sympathised with the democratic movement. Indeed, this reflected a change in the Indian government's own stance, for it had through the early 1990s put its weight behind the Aung San Suu Kyi-led opposition. The New Delhi government even gave Suu Kyi a prestigious national award, at the cost of embittering ties with the Rangoon government. Leading politicians, including the erstwhile socialist George Fernandes, had open-door policies at their homes for Burmese exiles battling the regime.