Mum on Myanmar, India preaches Gandhism

Myanmar's army has waged a long-running brutal war against ethnic groups in which soldiers have destroyed villages, raped women and killed innocent civilians.

Troops who last week killed at least 13 and arrested over 1,000 people to suppress the largest pro-democracy protests in nearly 20-years have continued overnight arrests and mounted patrols to strike terror into the population.

Last week's bloody crackdown—details and images of which have trickled out on web postings and video clips despite a media clampdown—has drawn international outrage, and governments have started to take action.

India’s non-interference in the internal affairs of other countries is well-known. But was it right for Sonia Gandhi to completely ignore the brutal crackdown in Myanmar while championing the cause of non-violence at the United Nations? Are we guilty of not practicing what we preach?

Hindustan Times Editor Manoj Joshi, Former President, Samta Party Jaya Jaitley and Managing Editor, Mizzima News Myint discussed this on Face the Nation.

Only preach no practice

On Gandhi Jayanthi, Sonia Gandhi at the UN spoke up for the relevance of Gandhian non-violence. "Ladies and Gentlemen, it is not the relevance of Mahatma Gandhi that is in question today, what is in question today is whether we have the courage to emulate what he preached and practiced, what he lived and died for."

But when it came to translating the rhetoric in to solid action, Mrs Gandhi chose a hypocititical stand. India hasn’t condemned, uttered a word in fact about the brutal killings of monks in Myanmar.

Monks protesting through prayer in Burma were last week beaten to death and submission under a merciless military regime. And India’s reaction? Not a word of condemnation against the brutal crackdown.

The US is urging India and China to use their influence to "support the cause of freedom." Little Singapore's PM and ASEAN's head, Lee Hsien Loong, at least wrote a letter to Myanmar's Senior General Than Shwe urging him to "Exercise utmost restraint, and seek a political solution for national reconciliation and a peaceful transition to democracy."

However, India that seeks to sit at the nuclear high table and wishes to be a global player chose to dismiss Myanmar as an 'internal matter', unable to condemn what it believes is 'unacceptable' without jeopardizing its national interests.

A latest new video evidence of this brutality shows military generals killing innocent unarmed people on the streets. The images, were smuggled out by men and women who risked their lives and made a narrow escape from the ‘hellhole’.

Why is India silent?

The argument made against not condemning the brutal crackdown in Myanmar is the recourse to national interest. What is the defense?

“This has to be seen in terms of state-to-state relations. It is the head and not the heart that rules,” said Manoj Joshi, Edit Page Editor, Hindustan Times.

But hasn’t India condemned such acts before? “What happened in Hungary in 1956, India did not condemn. Jawahar Lal Nehru did not condemn it then why do we exoect a different reaction this time,” he pointed out.