Washington, October 21
Nobel laureate Amartya Sen today rapped India over its Myanmar policy, saying the country “completely abdicated” its responsibility on morality after getting a “bit of power” and pleaded for global scrutiny of the November 7 general elections under the military junta.

Sen, a vocal critic of the ruling military regime in Myanmar, termed the policies of India, China and Thailand with regard to Burma as “exceptionally crude and valuationally gross”.

India’s policy on Burma “is partly in imitation of China, which is increasingly dominated by much narrower national concerns than those that moved Gandhi, Nehru and Tagore,” Sen, who spent part of his childhood in Myanmar, said in his keynote address to a conference on Myanmar at the prestigious Johns Hopkins University.

“When our power to influence the world was zero, we spent our time lecturing the world on morality. And when we get a bit of power, although not as much as China, then we completely abdicated that responsibility,” 76-year-old Sen said.

Highly critical of India for hosting the Myanmaere military leadership in New Delhi, he said: “I have to say that as a loyal Indian citizen, it breaks my heart to see the prime minister of my democratic country, and one of the most humane and sympathetic political leaders in the world, engage in welcoming the butchers from Myanmar and to be photographed in a state of cordial proximity.” Sen said he is also concerned that public discussion in India on the Burmese situation has been near absent.