Volume 7

Myanmar Military Coup
In the early hours of Monday, 1st of February
in Myanmar, the Myanmar army’s TV station
announced that the power has been handed over
to Commander-in-Chief Min Aung Hlaing and
a state of emergency has been declared for a year
in Myanmar. Aung San Suu Kyi and the President
were arrested and detained along with several
other democratically elected leaders. This is the
third time since the country’s independence
from the British in 1948, that the military has
seized power, leading to an autocratic regime,
with the earlier ones involving suppression of
human rights and war crimes. Later on, the
military decided to give back power but the
generals continued to exercise control over
major ministerial portfolios.
Even though Myanmar was declared to be a
democracy, the political leaders, continued
to cooperate closely with the military to the
extent of denying the Rohingya Genocide
by the military, in the International court
of justice (2019). In the November 2020
elections, NLD had again obtained a
majority of seats and was thereby eligible
to form the government, whereas the
military-backed party USDP had
performed poorly. With
many other tensions
between the NLD
and the military
already known
before, it can
- Abhinav Tyagi
be easily concluded that the military decided
to settle the scores by levelling allegations of
mass voter fraud against Aung San Suu Kyi
and her associates. The election commission
of Myanmar dismissed the presence of proof of
any such voter fraud. The Coup was also timed
before the first session of the parliament, which
was to be held soon after.
The coup has received widespread international
condemnation, with the UN Secretary General,
Antonio Guterres claiming it to be a “serious
blow to democratic reforms”. The US and UK
have reacted with sanctions on military leaders.
Beijing urged all sides to “resolve differences”.
The neighbouring countries dismissed the coup
as an internal matter. India, though expressed
it’s “deep concern” regarding the restoration of
democracy, cannot make any aggressive steps
for the same. India has a lot of investments in
form of developmental projects in Myanmar,
which serve as potential economically beneficial
routes between India and East Asia. Apart from
this, any aggressive reaction or sanctions like
the US could result in Myanmar seeking closer
ties with China. Henceforth, considering the
aforementioned facts, it would be beneficial for
India to continue to seek diplomatic closeness
with Myanmar Military and take into close
consideration any such factors which may affect
the Indian-Myanmar diplomatic relationships.
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