New Article | What Should India Do in Myanmar?
I propose four action points in an op-ed for The Hindu.
After more than three years of the military coup in Myanmar, India continues to formally engage with the junta, which is led by Min Aung Hlaing and calls itself the ‘State Administration Council (SAC).’ This is despite the SAC’s relentless brutality against its own people, disregard for norms of democratic cooperation, and nonchalance towards the interests of its immediate neighbours.
The logic of India’s formal engagement with the SAC is simply yet shaky – it has no other choice but to work with whoever is in power in Naypyidaw. New Delhi, as argued by the mainstream foreign policy commentators and practitioners, needs to do so to protect its own “interests.”
I challenge this view in my new op-ed for The Hindu, published on 22 June. I also propose four immediate action points that India needs to take to redirect its Myanmar policy towards a more “progressive” end. My key argument here is not for New Delhi to eschew its pursuit of “national interests” in the neighbourhood, but to refashion the very notion of “interests” in a manner that leverages a unique set of “values” to distinguish itself from its key regional competitor, China.
Read the full article here: https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/a-progressive-indian-policy-on-myanmar-outlined/article68317751.ece
Following is a clipping of the same from The Hindu’s e-paper:
