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| Myanmar pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi (left) \ and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh during a meeting in Yangon in May, 2012 [File Photo] |
New Delhi: Nobel laureate and pro-democracy icon, Aung San Suu Kyi will arrives Tuesday in India for the first time since being elected to the Myanmar Parliament following her party National League of Democracy's clean sweep of the historic by-elections, which were held in April.
Her visit came after the invitation from UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. She will deliver the Nehru Memorial Lecture on the occasion of the birth Anniversary of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru on November 14.
The visit will help India counter criticism that it had abandoned its commitment to the return of democracy in Burma.
Aung San Suu Kyi is no stranger to India. She attended college in New Delhi while her mother served as ambassador to India about 50 years ago.
She has described Indian independence leaders Mahatma Gandhi and Jawaharlal Nehru as great influences on her.
New Delhi joined the world in calling for the release of Aung San Suu Kyi during the initial years of her detention by the Burmese military rulers. But it made a dramatic turnaround in its policy toward its neighbor in the mid 1990s, and began engaging Burma’s military rulers.