On Thursday, Lady Shri Ram College for Women in Lajpat Nagar was the scene of frenzied preparations to host Burmese pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi on Friday morning, as murals of dancing Burmese women and colourful posters were properly positioned to welcome the Nobel laureate who will be returning to her alma mater after over 40 years.
Suu Kyi studied for three years in the political science department in the college from 1961 to 1964, when her mother was posted as the Burmese ambassador to India. In the corridor where 40 years ago she had walked down to various classes, black and white posters of Suu Kyi’s smiling visage were smoothened down, to ensure that there were no wrinkles on the surface.
A LSR student, Vanshika said that it was hard to believe that the day was finally coming, when Suu Kyi would visit her college. “She has inspired all of us… teaching us not to be crippled with fear,” she said. Having been a political science student in the elite women’s college in Delhi University, she is likely to have a special interaction with the latest batch of young students of the department. She will also be interviewed by two students for an in-house journal.
Suu Kyi is back on Indian soil after 25 years. She began with a call on Vice President Mohammad Hamid Ansari, followed by a meeting with Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar at Parliament.
“I feel very much at home here,” Suu Kyi told reporters, but when asked to say something in Hindi, she said. “I would not like to risk that.... My Hindi was never the best, you know. So I think I better be safe than sorry and stick to English. Unless you want me to speak Burmese, which I shall be quite willing to,” she said. While these meetings were the normal pit stops of her visit, Suu Kyi also unexpectedly visited the Myanmar embassy in the diplomatic enclave, demonstrating the extent of her reconciliation with the regime -- an event unimaginable just a few years ago.
Suu Kyi’s mother was the former Burmese envoy to India and Nepal and sat in the same building in the early sixties. In the evening, she had discussions on substantive bilateral issues with External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, who also hosted a dinner in her honour. According to sources, Suu Kyi largely spoke on her perceptions of the domestic reconciliation process and its future path.
In that context, she did mention the situation in Rakhine state, where there had been repeated clashes between locals and Rohingyas, who the Myanmarese claim have infiltrated from Bangladesh.
Besides her nostalgic visit to LSR on Friday morning, she will also interact with the Burmese community living here, many of whom had come to India after facing persecution from the Junta.
In her speech to accept the Jawaharlal Nehru award on Wednesday, Suu Kyi had addressed the unease over the change in course by the Indian government from its support for the pro-democracy movement to courting the Junta in the nineties.