India must play greater role in Myanmar: Suu Kyi

December 08, 2010 11:06 am | Updated October 22, 2016 04:13 pm IST - New Delhi

Myanmar’s Aung San Suu Kyi wants India to play a “more active” role in democratisation of her country.

The 65-year-old Suu Kyi in an interview to PTI also said that India must live up to the reputation of being the biggest democracy in the world and not be dictated by its commercial interests in Myanmar.

Commenting on India’s growing economic-driven engagement with the military regime, the opposition leader said she was not against India’s engagement with Than Shwe’s ruling military regime but wanted India to play an active role in democratisation of Myanmar and have parleys with her National league for Democracy party.

“We would like India to play a more active role in trying to help in the process of democratisation of Burma and I would like the Indian government to engage more with us... who are working more with democracy,” the Nobel peace laureate said in the interview on phone from Yangon.

Speaking on India’s commercial interests in Myanmar, Ms. Suu Kyi said “India’s role in previous decades has been aided firmly by its reputation as the biggest democracy and it has taken pride in this, but, perhaps, more attention has turned towards the commercial side,” she said.

Ms. Suu Kyi said she expected the Indian government “to look beyond this commercial kind of view when it comes to Myanmar.”

Ms. Suu Kyi, who lived in India in the 1980s, was released in Yangon on November 13 after spending more than seven consecutive years in detention.

Once a strong supporter of Suu Kyi, India began engaging the Myanmar’s military ruler in the mid-1990s as security, energy and strategic needs appeared to override concerns over democracy and human rights.

India is eager to boost its investment in gas and hydro-electricity projects in Myanmar and is eyeing oil and gas fields and fears losing out to China in the race for strategic space in Asia. It also counted on the military junta’s help to counter ethnic separatists operating along their remote eastern common border.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.