In contrast to Chinese support for military rule in Burma, India had actively sympathized with the cause of democracy for Burma. After his removal from power following the 1962 military coup, former Burmese Prime Minister U Nu took shelter in India. The all-round moral and material support given by India to the heroic struggle for democracy in Burma made citizens of the country proud. It earned high respect and admiration from lovers of democracy and freedom around the world. Indian diplomats throughout Southeast Asia earned high plaudits for their country's unquestioned and unconditional help to the pro-democracy movement in Burma.
The abrupt reversal, in the mid-1990s, of New Delhi's stance in favor of the ruling military junta marked a radical departure from India's time-tested Burma policy. The bankrupt Indian foreign policy establishment in the South Block has abdicated its responsibility for formulating and executing India's policy towards Burma. It is now left to Indian generals to conduct our diplomacy in that country. India's army-driven Burma policy is solely geared to placating Burma's generals and is unconcerned with addressing the needs and concerns of the 53 million people of Burma comprising diverse races and religions. Such a policy has resulted in military supplies, provision of road and railway communication facilities and trade concessions to the generals ensconced in Naypyitaw, thereby strengthening the repressive military regime.
In 1998, the machinations of the military junta in collusion with an Indian army colonel butchered a number of Arakanese freedom fighters in the Andamans. Thirty four other Arakanese nationals friendly to India were arrested and detained under concocted charges of gun-running and waging war against the state. While the rogue colonel is freely moving about in Burma serving the Burmese military intelligence and lining his pockets, the hapless Arakanese are rotting in a Calcutta jail paying the price of friendship with India. The CBI has failed to produce even a shred of evidence against the prisoners, but the trying court has been drawing out the case from date to date. All this is happening in sovereign, democratic India, at the insistence of the tin-pot Burmese Tatmadaw [Army].
On the other hand, the much touted cooperation from the Burmese side in tackling northeast insurgent groups operating from across India's border in Burma has remained an empty promise. Instead, for example, Burmese security agencies have continued as before to support the insurgents of Manipur.
One rationale for appeasing the Burmese generals is that this would help erode Chinese influence. How realistic this expectation is, was brought into question when Burma gave short shrift to India's overture for the supply of natural gas from new gas fields in Arakan state, instead deciding to divert the valuable resources to China.
Thanks to New Delhi's unmitigated policy of appeasement, in the past few years Burmese military intelligence has spread its tentacles far and wide in this country. Intelligence agents operating from the Burmese embassy in New Delhi and the Burmese consulate in Kolkata have effectively penetrated the country's military establishment, civil services, intelligentsia, media and academic institutions. The treacherous military junta has repeatedly rebuffed all U.N. initiatives and efforts for a peaceful transition to democracy in Burma, but New Delhi has preferred to remain a silent spectator of the military's intransigence.
In September of last year, the junta ruthlessly crushed the peaceful pro-democracy demonstrations of students and Buddhist clergy. The rest of the democratic world roundly condemned the mayhem, but the Government of India and the media in this country maintained a deafening silence over the bloodshed. After wavering for two decades over the road to democratic rule, Burma's military junta, euphemistically named the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), has recently produced a draft constitution scheduled to be put to a referendum next month. It debars Aung San Suu Kyi from contesting the parliamentary election, provides 25 percent representation in parliament to the defense forces and military rule in the event of a declaration of national emergency in the country. In other words, in the name of restoring democracy the treacherous generals are out to enact an enormous constitutional fraud. The present Indian government and its media have to date failed to react to this massive act of deceit.
Meanwhile the junta, through its special agencies and agents of influence, has been manipulating events and policies to its advantage without hindrance. Last month, the Kolkata-based Maulana Azad Institute of Asian Research, funded by the central government, organized a seminar at the Astoria Hotel on Indo-Burma relations. The subject and the focus of the seminar, as well as the speakers, were decided by an old and trusted contact of the local Burmese Consulate. The Institute imposed a thick veil of secrecy over the seminar, to the point of insulting anyone who showed any interest in it. One reason for this excessive secrecy is that most of the participants were Burmese military officers. Questioned about the rationale of the hush-hush manner of conducting the seminar, a senior official of the Institute claimed that this was done on the advice of the Ministry of External Affairs.
In the past two decades, thanks to the pusillanimity of our ruling class, intellectuals and academics, Indo-Burma interactions have been strictly confined to the military. The devastating consequences will be felt when democracy returns to Burma. In that event, friendless India will have no clue as to how to go about developing mutually beneficial ties with the people and government of a democratic Burma.
The author is Former Additional Secretary of cabinet Secretariat, Government of India.
