JOIN USIndia is expected to convey its support for further progress in Myanmar's movement towards full democracy when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh meets opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi tomorrow in what is billed as one of the high-points of his landmark visit.
Ahead of the Singh-Suu Kyi meeting in Yangon which will see the pro-democracy icon sticking to protocol and calling on the Indian premier, External Affairs Minister S M Krishna said that "Suu Kyi is one of the important leaders of Myanmar and it's natural for the Prime Minister to receive her with due courtesy and convey our best wishes for a national reconciliation for a democratic process to blossom in this country".
Asked what more commitments can India make in helping democracy flourish in Myanmar, Krishna said: "who are we to make more commitments to the democratic process here. This is a free, sovereign country with whom we have diplomatic and other relationships".
The meeting with India-educated 66-year-old Nobel Laureate Suu Kyi will take place a day after Singh's talks with Myanmar President Thein Sein who is credited with initiating a series of political reforms in the last one year.
It speaks volumes of the changed environment in Myanmar that Singh is meeting leaders at opposite ends of the political spectrum, in a break from the past few years when Indian leaders, including former President A P J Abdul Kalam and Vice President Hamid Ansari, visited this country but could not meet Suu Kyi who had been under house arrest.
Singh's meeting with Suu Kyi is seen as a clear sign that New Delhi wants a reaffirmation of ties with the democracy activist after facing international criticism in the past for its engagement with Myanmar’s former military junta.
Suu Kyi, who turns 67 next month, has always been respected by New Delhi which gave her the prestigious Jawaharlal Nehru Award in 1993 and Myanmar's dictatorship the cold shoulder. But security and energy issues and China's growing footprints in Myanmar prompted a change of track by India which began engaging the military junta.
India forged closer ties with the junta, inviting former senior General Than Shwe on an official state visit in 2004.
India, according to sources, has repeatedly resisted attempts and temptations of taking side in Myanmar's internal political battle and made it clear to this country's leadership that it is ready to do business with any government of the day.
The meeting between Singh and Suu Kyi takes place at a time when her image has evolved from a being a leader who has defied the military junta with steely resolve to a politician in a fledgling democracy embracing compromise.
The change came out most tellingly when Suu Kyi was sworn in as a member of parliament on May 2, a week after initially refusing to take the oath of office over the wording of an army-drafted constitution, triggering a political crisis.
Suu Kyi's National League for Democracy had wanted the wording of the oath changed from "safeguard" to "respect" the constitution which she had pledged to amend because it enshrines the army's hold on the power-structure in Myanmar.
However, Suu Kyi backed down after a few days and her swearing in as a member of parliament capped a tenacious and decade-long journey from a political prisoner to an office-holder and moved her struggle for democracy into a new phase—inside the government.
This was a far cry from the days when Suu Kyi, the 1991 Nobel Peace prize winner, was one of the prisoners of conscience held under house arrest for much of the last two decades before being freed in late 2010. Few at that time could have thought that she would rise from a fighter for democracy to an office-holder in a space of just 18 months.
Suu Kyi's oath-taking after failing to push through even the small change in the wording of the oath-taking statement clearly pointed to the immense challenges Suu Kyi faces ahead in a country still dominated by the military and its proxy civilian government.
The government of President Sein Thein has been credited with instituting political reforms, including release of political prisoners, signing truce with ethnic rebels, easing media censorship and holding the parliamentary byelections that allowed NLD to make its parliamentary debut .