India’s current engagement with Myanmar seems to suggest that Indian foreign policy has forsaken the high morals of the Nehruvian years for pragmatism. 

Backdrop

Post independence, India and Burma maintained friendly relations, largely owing to the personal relationship between Nehru and U Nu. Between the military coup in 1962 and the 1988 democratic uprising, Burma had isolated itself. India denounced the Junta’s brutal crushing of the uprising, severed official relations, offered refuge to political exiles and conferred the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding on Ms Aung San Suu Kyi, leader of the democratic struggle, in 1992. The largest democracy in the world stood up to its name and record of upholding democratic ideals. By 1993, things changed when India began a “constructive engagementâ€Â