India to Let Dictators Thrive in Her Neighborhood

India to Let Dictators Thrive in Her Neighborhood

Singapore, June 3 (AP): India, hailed as the world's biggest democracy, will not export its free society ideology to neighbouring military-ruled Myanmar, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said today.

"Our basic principle is to live in peaceful coexistence and we do not believe in exporting ideologies," Mukherjee said.

"It is for the people of the countries to decide what type of government they would like," he said.

Well, people under a dictator's thumb would love to decide what type of government they would like only if they had the chance without the fear of being jailed for decades or, worse, killed. In other words, people in those countries can decide only if they had democracy in the first place, Mr. Defence minister!

One can only marvel at the oxymoronic platitudes and concomitant insult to the Burmese (Myanmarese) people who by every account would love to be released from under the military jackboots. Who wouldn't?

The minister talks of democracy as an ideology as if the military rule on its both flanks -- Pakistan and Myanmar -- is a benevolent alternative. In the same breath he pays lip service to "letting people decide". Not too long ago, a similar attitude had India caught on the wrong foot as the anti-king demonstrations in Nepal evolved rapidly. The Nepalese people naturally perceived the Indian government was more interested in sucking up to the King even after it became obvious the Gyanendra was losing control. The US ambassador called it before India dared to.

India's NAM-era habit of non-interference, i.e. letting the world's worst despots butcher their people without uttering a single word, seems to have become a sickening addiction. The Indian government sure tries hard to slap a lofty principle on its skulduggery, like the letting people decide comment, but it is hard not to overlook this one was about a potential oil pipeline through Myanmar, about abkeeping the Myanmarese army as a happy arms buyer and of course exploiting its potential as the gateway for India's oft-sited look east policy. Let Daw Aung San Suu Kyi perish in prison and whole generations of her countrymen go through without tasting freedom.