Call out the generals for the despots they are

The history of freedom is the story of the Unknown Rebel. In the iconography of civil rebellion, the most defining image of the confrontation between democracy and totalitarianism is the Tank Man on Tiananmen Square. On June 5, 1989, he stood in front of a Chinese tank, contemptuous of death, fully aware that he would be thrown and tortured in a Communist prison, and die without the world not knowing his name. The tragedy of freedom is that so many unnamed, unsung heroes die for us. Thirty-two years later, similar images are coming out of Burma. A nun kneeling in front of armed soldiers, pleading with them to spare “the children” and take her life instead. Soldiers dragging away bodies of protestors like dogs. A young girl in front of a line, minutes before a police bullet shattered her skull. The road to democracy is littered with the corpses of martyrs. As Burma burns, refugees who include policemen and soldiers who refused to shoot their own people are fleeing to India. 

There comes a time when a nation cannot afford to be a refugee from its conscience. When Burmese generals held a parade to commemorate their Armed Forces Day, India sent its representative, as did Russia, China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand. Perhaps South Block should be reminded that with the exception of Bangladesh, the other participants are not democracies; some are shams or brutally repressive regimes that detain, torture and kill their own citizens. To be in their company to celebrate a parade of despots diminishes India’s status as a vibrant democracy. The Burmese military is useful to Indian interests in the volatile Northeast, agreed. But a deal with the devil cannot trump our covenant with humanity. India does not deserve to be clubbed with China, Pakistan, and Russia. 

The last decade belonged to the refugee, when Islamic terror transformed the Middle East into an ethnic, tribal, religious inferno. India has a gigantic refugee problem of its own, which has caused bitter electoral and social disputes and redefined ideologies. Ten million refugees from East Pakistan fled to India in 1971 and settled in West Bengal, Tripura and Assam. They are now excoriating factors in the local employment and cultural ecosystem. Political interests having realised their vote bank value had kept them back instead of sending them home. 

Bangladesh recently dispatched about one million Rohingiya refugees to an island in the Bay of Bengal. Over 50,000 ethnic Pakistani Biharis are living in Bangladesh camps since 1971, unwanted by Islamabad. Accepting the East Pakistani refugees was not the error India made; it was not repatriating them once the war was over that was the mistake. The refugee has no republic. It lies in the power of a strong nation to give them back their country. The Burmese refugees must be given shelter, and sent back once normalcy returns. India must leverage its military and economic influence with the Junta to ensure that democracy returns. New Delhi is the cornerstone of Asia’s democratic ethos. The Burmese generals have no love for us. They are Chinese puppets. They must go. 

Ravi Shankar

ravi@newindianexpress.com