Yangon, May 29
It was perhaps the most anticipated meeting of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s landmark visit to Myanmar. For ever since Aung San Suu Kyi was first placed under house arrest by the military junta in 1989, no Indian head of state had met her. So the iconic Myanmar leader’s meeting with Manmohan Singh today in Yangon assumed political proportions as significant as the Prime Minister’s meeting with President Thein Sein the previous day.

When Manmohan Singh finally met Suu Kyi at the Hotel Sedona in the heart of Yangon, Myanmar’s legendary leader came across as “self-assured” and “someone who knows what she wants and where she is headed too,” according to delegates present during the meeting. Suu Kyi, dressed in a lilac-coloured longyi and blouse, gracefully accepted Manmohan Singh’s invitation to visit India and deliver the Jawarharlal Nehru Memorial address. The Prime Minister handed over to Suu Kyi a personal letter of invitation written by Sonia Gandhi, chairperson of the ruling UPA and also the Nehru Memorial Fund.

Indicating the importance that India attached to the meeting with Myanamar’s foremost Opposition leader, the delegation included External Affairs Minister SM Krishna, Naveen Jindal, MP who came as part of a high-level business team and top Indian officials like Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister Pulok Chatterjee, National Security Adviser Shivshankar Menon and Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai.

With India sensitive to the concerns of Myanmar’s ruling dispensation, Manmohan Singh was politically correct. The Prime Minister shrugged off suggestions given by some of his advisers to meet the Nobel laureate at her famed University Avenue residence as British Prime Minister David Cameron did recently.

Suu Kyi had spent the better part of the past two decades under house arrest. “She is the Opposition leader, so the meeting with the Indian PM was held according to accepted protocol,” explained a senior official accompanying the delegation. Also while planning his trip, the PM ensured that he spent two nights at Nay Pyi Taw, the capital, and skipped staying over at Yangon.

Yet the big message that the PM delivered to both Suu Kyi and the government headed by Thein Sein was that India recognised her role in Myanmar’s politics as a “defining” one in the road to democratic reform underway. With Suu Kyi standing next to him at the joint statement made to the press after their meeting, Manmohan Singh said: “Madam Daw Aung San Suu Kyi’s life, her struggle, and her determination have inspired millions of people all over the world.

Our sincere belief is that in the Process of National Reconciliation which has been launched by President Thein Sein, Madam Suu Kyi will play a defining role.”

On her part, Suu Kyi’s signal was subtle. She too was aware of the sensitivity and was careful not to criticise the Myanmar Government. She brought a personal touch when she referred to Nehru as Panditji and recalled his association with her father. Then she made it clear that while India could engage with the ruling junta it should not forget that it would be the people of Myanmar who would determine the future of the country. As she said at the joint press meet, “I hope that there will be greater exchanges between our two peoples. As I said to the PM, true friendship between the two countries can be based only on friendship between our peoples, and this is what I hope we will be able to achieve.”

Those present during the delegation-level talks were impressed with her poise, her frankness and also that she was aware of the political uncertainty that was ahead.

Yet she exhibited quiet confidence telling an Indian TV channel soon after the meeting that, “I have always said you cannot hope unless there is endeavour. We have hoped as much as we have worked and we have worked very hard.”