The Hindu Editorial Analysis- 22nd June 2024 | Current Affairs & Hindu Analysis: Daily, Weekly & Monthly - UPSC PDF Download

A progressive Indian policy on Myanmar outlined

Why in News?

New Delhi’s stance of defining its ‘interests’ in the Southeast Asian country in narrow strategic terms needs to change.

How India can step out of China’s shadow

• Three years on, the military in Myanmar, which overthrew the elected civilian government in February 2021, continues to kill, maim and displace its own people.
• Indian foreign policy scholars and practitioners have doggedly defended this policy by arguing that India needs to work with the junta if it has to protect its “interests” in Myanmar and not get swayed by an idealistic preoccupation with “values”.
• But, in foreign policy, there is no clear line between “values” and “interests” simply because neither has a standard definition.
• It all depends on how a country defines these terms. This is also the case with India’s Myanmar policy.
• New Delhi has long defined its “interests” in the Southeast Asian country in narrow strategic terms.
• But now, it needs to leverage a unique set of “values” to better defend its interests.
•  It is possible for India to put in place a more progressive, values-driven Myanmar policy that works in favour, and not against, its national interests.
• This new policy should have two key pivots, namely, democracy and human security.

The Steps

• First, India needs to use its credentials as the largest federal democracy in the region to sharpen its influence in Myanmar.
• For long, Myanmar’s pro-democracy political elites and civil society have looked up to India as a model of a federal democratic union with a well-oiled power-sharing arrangement between the centre and various subnational units.
• This is even more relevant today as the democratic resistance in Myanmar, which is led by the National Unity Government (NUG), dozens of ethnic revolutionary organisations, civil society organisations, and trade unions, strives to replace the military-drafted 2008 constitution with a federal constitution.
• By helping this vibrant opposition achieve its aim through capacity-building and knowledge exchange programmes, India can distinguish itself from China, its primary regional competitor in Myanmar.
• Both Beijing and New Delhi can sell military hardware to Myanmar, but only India can sell the spirit of federal cooperation.

Weapons sales and humanitarian outreach

• Second, India needs to immediately halt all weapon sales to the Myanmar military.
• Indian state-owned military hardware manufacturers have sold a range of non-lethal and semi-lethal equipment to the junta since the 2021 coup.
• New Delhi needs to immediately put a stop to these, as the Myanmar military continues to use all its three services — the army, air force, and navy — to attack non-combatant civilians using imprecise lethal tactics.
• Third, India needs to immediately open cross-border humanitarian corridors to help civilians affected by the conflict along three border provinces — Sagaing Region, Chin State and northern Rakhine State.
• New Delhi needs to first revoke its plans to fence the India-Myanmar border and reinstate the Free Movement Regime, or the FMR, which the Union Home Ministry suspended in February 2024.
• Then, it should engage existing humanitarian aid networks along the India-Myanmar border to send emergency relief assistance including medicines, food and tarpaulin to the other side.
• Mizoram, where a multi-layered asylum and aid ecosystem is already operational, is a good starting point.
• India should also collaborate with local and international non-governmental organisations with experience in the field.
• Best practices from Thailand, which recently started cross-border aid deliveries into Myanmar, should also be adopted.
• New Delhi should use its clout to ensure that the aid is not distributed by the junta, which not only has a disastrous track record in this field, but is also not even in control of large areas along the India-Myanmar border.
• It is also possible to run cross-border aid corridors without allowing contraband to pass through, with stringent checks and pre-delivery vetting.

Way forward

• Regardless of the fact that India has not ratified the 1951 Refugee Convention, it is incumbent upon the government to treat them as refugees in need of humanitarian assistance and protection rather than as “illegal immigrants”.
• Both the Indian Constitution and international law allow the Indian state to do so.
• In fact, the customary international legal principle of non-refoulement discourages India from deporting refugees back to a home country where they face a threat of persecution or death.
• India, the “Vishwabandhu”, routinely claims to stand with the people of Myanmar. It should now walk the talk.