Suu Kyi to visit India next month

Myanmar’s iconic pro-democracy leader and Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi will visit India for nearly a week next month, her first trip to the country after a gap of nearly 40 years.

Suu Kyi will deliver the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Lecture here November 14, official sources said on Thursday. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had extended an invitation to Suu Kyi when he was in Myanmar early this year. Mya­nmar’s opposition leader was conferred the Jawaharlal Neh­ru Award for International Und­e­rstanding in 1992. Suu Kyi, chairperson of the National League for Democracy, was under house arrest in Myanmar for almost 15 of the 21 years from 1989 to 2010.

Suu Kyi’s India link goes back to her youth when her mother, Khin Kyi, was appointed ambassador to India and Nepal in 1960. Suu Kyi graduated from Lady Shri Ram College, New Delhi in 1964.