Herald View: India cannot afford to turn a blind eye to the military crackdown in Myanmar

The world has paid scant attention to the one-and-a-half-month-old pro-democracy movement in Myanmar. Despite the country sinking into a civil war, India and China have preferred to allow events to dictate the course of history. Even as the US, Canada, UK and the EU have imposed some sanctions on the military in Myanmar and companies in Japan and Thailand have suspended their activities in the country, not a squeak has been heard from New Delhi and Beijing. While both China and India pretend to be super-powers in the making, they have shown little inclination or capacity to broker peace in their own backyard. Despite overwhelming evidence of growing military brutality and evidence that protests by people were spontaneous and largely peaceful, the military crackdown in Myanmar has been ignored as an internal affair.

The hypocrisy and helplessness of the international community are not new. Time and again the United Nations and the so-called super powers have failed to act against rogue states and dictators and paid lip service to democracy and civil liberties. The interventions, if any, have been selective at best. The indifference of the international community to what is happening in Myanmar should therefore come as no surprise. But stakes are higher for both China and India, which shares a 1,600-km border with Myanmar besides maritime links. Both the Asian giants have made significant investment in Myanmar. The population in Myanmar comprise people of both Chinese and Indian origin. In order to reduce its dependence on China, the military in Myanmar has increasingly turned to India for military hardware and training in recent years. Besides as many as 13 Indian public sector undertakings including Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) and Bharat Dynamics Ltd (BDL), the Adani Group and the Tatas have also substantial business interests in the country. Indian companies have invested in the oil and gas sectors, in infrastructure building and several Indian banks have offices there. With the military in Myanmar controlling businesses, both China and India therefore enjoy substantial leverage with Tatmadaw. Suspicious that China has been assisting the military, a section of the people in Myanmar have already turned against Chinese units, setting some of them on fire. They also launched a campaign to boycott Chinese products. A stable and peaceful Myanmar is in the interest of both India and China and both the countries had the opportunity to work together for once in the interest of regional peace; and both are likely to rue their inaction if conditions in Myanmar worsen.

Japan’s Kirin Holdings and Suzuki Motors, as well as Thailand’s Amata – have suspended their commercial relationships with Tatmadaw-linked entities after the military coup in Myanmar. The Myanmarese military leadership is also being investigated for serious war crimes at the International Criminal Court (ICC). The International Court of Justice (ICJ) is engaged in investigating the role of the military in the genocide of Rohingyas. What is more, Myanmar has actually conceded before the International Court of Justice that its security forces did commit ‘mass killings’ of Rohingyas. Justice for Myanmar (JFM), an international pressure group, has also singled out Indian business entities like the Adani Group and Infosys for their links to businesses controlled by the Generals in Myanmar.

‘Any international business that continues to operate in Myanmar after February 1 is bankrolling the Myanmar military and enabling their criminal conduct’, JFM said in a statement. Patronising an internationally discredited military junta is clearly not an option that India should exercise. Such an act is not just morally indefensible but also politically shortsighted.