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| Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh (left) and President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam welcome Burmese junta leader Snr-Gen Than Shwe to New Delhi in October, 2004. (Photo: PTI) |
A senior Indian government official told US diplomats in 2004 that the Burmese junta learned from its “master” China how to trick the world, and could “go nuclear” to get US attention, according to a diplomatic cable from New Delhi obtained by Wikileaks.
The official, Mitra Vashishta, joint secretary of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs for South East Asia, also expressed the opinion that Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi’s “time has come and gone.”
Vashishta was described in the November, 2004, US cable as an “outspoken Indian foreign affairs official.” She met US diplomats a few days after a visit to India by junta supremo Snr-Gen Than Shwe, on Oct 24-29.
The visit took place shortly after Burma's prime minister and powerful military intelligence chief Gen Khin Nyunt and several of his colleagues were arrested in what Vishishta called an “internal struggle” within the regime.
According to the US embassy cable, Vishishta told the American diplomats that the Burmese junta, the State Peace and Development Council, had been “learning from the master [China] about how to hoodwink the international community” on human rights.
Vashishta said China would like an Indian Ocean port in Burma and hoped to project its influence “everywhere India does,” according to the Wikileaks cable, published on the web site of the British daily newspaper The Guardian on Thursday.
According to the Indian official, members of the Burmese junta delegation who visited India wondered whether Burma would have to “go nuclear” to get US attention, making a comparison with Pakistan.
According to the cable, Vashishta seemed to place more hope for democracy in Burma in Than Shwe than in Suu Kyi, whose “day has come and gone.” Than Shwe would be more apt to bring about democratic reform if he could do so without losing face, she said.
The Burmese regime considered India “a democratic role model,” with the “best credential” to promote democracy in Burma, Vashishta said.
She told the US diplomats that, similar to New Delhi’s Pakistan policy, India planned to pursue “people-to-people ties” with the Burmese junta, promoting culture and sports links between two countries.
Vashishta noted that India’s policy toward Burma was pragmatic, based largely on New Delhi’s security interests, but also reflecting India’s desire eventually to see a democratic Burma.
Since the early 1990s, India has been pursuing ties with the Burmese regime under a “Look East Policy,” mainly based on countering China’s influence and reflecting New Delhi’s security interests, including in its approach to ethnic insurgencies along the Indo-Burmese border.
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