View: Don’t join hypocrites in condemning Myanmar
ET CONTRIBUTORS|
Updated: Sep 13, 2017, 12.20 AM IST
We should not fritter away our strategic stakes in Myanmar by joining a selective, hypocritical chorus on humanitarian issues
By Kanwal Sibal
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Myanmar visit (September 5-7) was timely for consolidating bilateral ties. More so as Modi could give political comfort to the Aung San Suu Kyi government on the Rohingya issue over which she is being personally castigated internationally. Voices for restoration of sanctions on Myanmar are being heard.
We should not fritter away our strategic stakes in Myanmar by joining a selective, hypocritical chorus on humanitarian issues by those who prefer to agitate only such as are low-cost for them. The Islamic countries who condemn Myanmar should explain why Saudi Arabia’s onslaught on the Yemenis or that of Turkey on the Kurds is overlooked by them. Why is there silence on China’s treatment of Tibetans and the Uighur Muslims ? The OIC liberally condemns India on Kashmir but is inaudible over Pakistan’s promotion of terrorism in India and Afghanistan. The ease with which the perceived maltreatment of Muslims anywhere mobilises the community in distant geographies, even violently, explains why pan-Islamism makes the full integration of Muslim minorities in non-Muslim countries difficult.
Unfortunately, humanitarian issues are viewed by Islamic countries primarily through the religious prism. Myanmar may be mishandling the Rohingya issue but its complexity should not be downplayed by critics. Myanmar is strategically important for us for multiple reasons. It is contiguous with our insurgency-prone and economically underdeveloped northeast region. We need Myanmar’s cooperation to deal with insurgent groups and partner in connectivity projects that would link this land-locked region to the Bay of Bengal and beyond to ASEAN.
This would aid in developing our northeast states and contribute to their better integration with the rest of India by removing a feeling of neglect. Our Act East policy has the strategic objective of building closer ties with the economically dynamic Asian countries with which we have had intimate civilisational ties historically. The contemporary challenge is to redress the power balance in the region that is shifting towards a China fired by hegemonic ambitions. China is building north-south connectivities to link the region to the Chinese economy and through this gain political ascendancy.
India is promoting east-west connectivity projects such as the trilateral India-Myanmar-Thailand highway to be extended eventually to Vietnam. Myanmar is our gateway for such projects. China has also positioned itself very strongly in Myanmar itself, gaining access to the Bay of Bengal through its pipelines and port projects as part of its maritime silk road strategy. We have to offset China’s power in Myanmar, particularly with growing Myanmarese resistance to Beijing’s tightening embrace. The Rohingya issue should not be given the colour of a bilateral one between India and Bangladesh.
Commentary that India’s stance will damage India-Bangladesh relations as it fails to recompense the Sheikh Hasina government for its cooperation on weeding out anti-India insurgents from its soil is misguided. Bangladesh’s biggest defence partner is China, it supports the Belt and Road Initiative and wants to put its China and India ties in separate boxes. India has let the issue of 20 million plus Bangladeshi illegal migrants in India lie dormant, though the fact that 40,000 Rohingyas have moved to India should be reason for India to seriously address the porosity of our border with Bangladesh.
Astonishingly, the Rohingyas by the thousands have settled down in J&K where the Muslims fiercely oppose the settlement of Hindu refugees as a conspiracy to bring about demographic change. The Rohingya issue is thorny for us and glib talk about India’s historical vocation to accept refugees from everywhere is altogether vaporous.
(The author is a former foreign secretary)
@Levina @Nilgiri @NairSaab @ranjeet @Skull and Bones @thesolar65 @Tshering22
ET CONTRIBUTORS|
Updated: Sep 13, 2017, 12.20 AM IST
We should not fritter away our strategic stakes in Myanmar by joining a selective, hypocritical chorus on humanitarian issues
By Kanwal Sibal
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Myanmar visit (September 5-7) was timely for consolidating bilateral ties. More so as Modi could give political comfort to the Aung San Suu Kyi government on the Rohingya issue over which she is being personally castigated internationally. Voices for restoration of sanctions on Myanmar are being heard.
We should not fritter away our strategic stakes in Myanmar by joining a selective, hypocritical chorus on humanitarian issues by those who prefer to agitate only such as are low-cost for them. The Islamic countries who condemn Myanmar should explain why Saudi Arabia’s onslaught on the Yemenis or that of Turkey on the Kurds is overlooked by them. Why is there silence on China’s treatment of Tibetans and the Uighur Muslims ? The OIC liberally condemns India on Kashmir but is inaudible over Pakistan’s promotion of terrorism in India and Afghanistan. The ease with which the perceived maltreatment of Muslims anywhere mobilises the community in distant geographies, even violently, explains why pan-Islamism makes the full integration of Muslim minorities in non-Muslim countries difficult.
Unfortunately, humanitarian issues are viewed by Islamic countries primarily through the religious prism. Myanmar may be mishandling the Rohingya issue but its complexity should not be downplayed by critics. Myanmar is strategically important for us for multiple reasons. It is contiguous with our insurgency-prone and economically underdeveloped northeast region. We need Myanmar’s cooperation to deal with insurgent groups and partner in connectivity projects that would link this land-locked region to the Bay of Bengal and beyond to ASEAN.
This would aid in developing our northeast states and contribute to their better integration with the rest of India by removing a feeling of neglect. Our Act East policy has the strategic objective of building closer ties with the economically dynamic Asian countries with which we have had intimate civilisational ties historically. The contemporary challenge is to redress the power balance in the region that is shifting towards a China fired by hegemonic ambitions. China is building north-south connectivities to link the region to the Chinese economy and through this gain political ascendancy.
India is promoting east-west connectivity projects such as the trilateral India-Myanmar-Thailand highway to be extended eventually to Vietnam. Myanmar is our gateway for such projects. China has also positioned itself very strongly in Myanmar itself, gaining access to the Bay of Bengal through its pipelines and port projects as part of its maritime silk road strategy. We have to offset China’s power in Myanmar, particularly with growing Myanmarese resistance to Beijing’s tightening embrace. The Rohingya issue should not be given the colour of a bilateral one between India and Bangladesh.
Commentary that India’s stance will damage India-Bangladesh relations as it fails to recompense the Sheikh Hasina government for its cooperation on weeding out anti-India insurgents from its soil is misguided. Bangladesh’s biggest defence partner is China, it supports the Belt and Road Initiative and wants to put its China and India ties in separate boxes. India has let the issue of 20 million plus Bangladeshi illegal migrants in India lie dormant, though the fact that 40,000 Rohingyas have moved to India should be reason for India to seriously address the porosity of our border with Bangladesh.
Astonishingly, the Rohingyas by the thousands have settled down in J&K where the Muslims fiercely oppose the settlement of Hindu refugees as a conspiracy to bring about demographic change. The Rohingya issue is thorny for us and glib talk about India’s historical vocation to accept refugees from everywhere is altogether vaporous.
(The author is a former foreign secretary)
@Levina @Nilgiri @NairSaab @ranjeet @Skull and Bones @thesolar65 @Tshering22
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