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India and Burma have completely different political ideologies. The former is ruled by democracy while the latter by military. Since Indian attained her independence in 1947, there had been no major political crises except a State of Emergency declared during Indira Gandhi regime in 1975. The people of this country had sharply reacted against the act which in fact led her party to face unprecedented electoral debacle in the coming general election. On the other hand, Myanmar has been experiencing the military dictatorship that has earned dubious distinction for rejecting the democratically elected leaders to run the Government and for keeping the country`s democratic icon, Aung San Su Kyi, under house arrest till today. But the world communities were taken aback when India decided to work with the military regime.

The amount of suffer the people of northeast, however, have due to the cross-border militancy and drug trafficking is enormous. And it is so complicated that New Delhi simply cannot tackle without the assistance of her counterpart. The northeast states are sharing 1643 kilometer-long borders with military-ruled Myanmar and over 95 per cent of area is covered with dense forest and rivers, giving safe haven for those cross-border militants and drug smugglers.

Of late, there has been mounting pressure from New Delhi to the Burmese military ruler to crack down the northeast militant camps in its soil. For quite some time, New Delhi was unhappy the manner in which Yangon allowed northeast insurgents to use its soil to launch anti-India activities, while realizing that its isolation of Yangon also created huge diplomatic vacuum which was being filled by China. That has become a disadvantageous for New Delhi .

Over the years, New Delhi changed its policy towards Yangon and started investing millions of dollars for various developments like road construction and even for Kachin region. Reciprocating such gestures, Yangon cracked down northeast militants including NSCN (K). In the last 7 years or so, Myanmar juntas had launched intermittent operations against the northeast insurgents staying in their soil.

But how far the military regime can be trusted to be partners in their fight against these two most important issues---the cross-border militancy and drug trafficking. Because there are allegations that Myanmar army personnel have been involved in running the drug manufacturing and trading in connivance with the drug lords. According to papers presented by the international resource persons during an Asian Media Meet in Delhi , the Myanmar army has provided poppy seeds and loans to the farmers with the permission to grow them. The Military regime has even ordered militia to collect opium tax for battalion and also authorizing them as official drug buying agents.

There have also been reports that Myanmar army has nexus with the insurgents and even released cadres of the northeast militants after receiving a huge bribe.

In the backdrop of this, it is difficult to imagine how the armies of the two countries having sharp differences in the command, functioning and system will be able to jointly address the issues. Where is the logic that the Indian army can work with the cooperation with their counterpart who is creators of the problems? At the same time, we should not expect that Myanmar could do Bhutan way. The country is too big to dance in New Delhi `s tune.

New Delhi should rather work hard to develop a roadmap of democracy for Myanmar , no matter how long it takes. The world leaders have confidence that India can do a lot for restoring democracy in the military-ruled nation. Once the democracy is restored, the country will shine and bring major changes in the whole of Asia, while India `s major problem will also be solved.

Source: http://www.kanglaonline.com/index.php?template=kshow&kid=758&Idoc_Session=cecc2146686e0c2f09da8dbbed9ca20f