India Tiptoes in China’s Footsteps to Compete but Not Offend
The New York Times
Apr 4, 2008
NEW DELHI — Since protests against China broke out among the Tibetans who make their home in exile here, India has urged the Dalai Lama to refrain from talking politics and assured Beijing that the Olympic torch will pass unmolested when it arrives here this month. Demonstrators in New Delhi protested Myanmar’s junta amid a visit by one of its top generals. Also part of the visit: a project that could help India gain access to Myanmar’s resources. That delicate stance has disappointed some. But it is just one leg of an emerging Indian approach to the world — one part caution, one part competition, with a dash of mimicry sprinkled in — that is ever mindful of the more powerful giant that has risen on its eastern flank. The Dalai Lama has gently chided India as “overcautious.” The Tibetan issue is one thing. Perhaps more to the point was another, less noticed development this week, as the Indian prime minister warmly welcomed the second in command in Myanmar’s junta, a general named Maung Aye, barely six months after a crackdown there on Buddhist monks. Together they announced an Indian-financed project to refurbish a port, river and roads in Myanmar, a deal that may allow India to elbow its way into the plentiful energy reserves of a country that has become a virtual well of resources for Beijing.
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