Thread by @angshuman_ch

For #India, #Myanmar has been a key development partner in the neighbourhood. Since the last 1 decade & half, Delhi has spent more than $2 billion in various development projects in Myanmar (connectivity, border area dev, training, etc.).

How did the Feb 21 coup affect this? 1/n

One would think the coup choked #India's development aid programme in #Myanmar. But that's not true.

MEA dashboard shows high budgetary allocations & spendings after the coup. In fact, the amount 🇮🇳 disbursed in 2021-22 (Rs 598.25 cr/$72.5 mil) is the highest ever recorded. 2/n

The budgetary aid allocation for 2022-23 (1 yr after the coup) i.e. Rs 600 crore/$73 mil is also the highest ever for #Myanmar since MEA started publishing data.

Here's a snapshot of the same from the 2022-23 budget profile (4th column shows allocated amount for current FY). 3/n

Where exactly was #India spending so much money in post-coup #Myanmar? Which Indian projects are continuing in full steam under the coup regime? Old projects or new? Who are handling these projects from Myanmar side?

I wanted to find out. So I filed an RTI with the MEA. 4/n

Surprisingly, the MEA refused to divulge any details, using Section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act 2005 as an excuse.

Their reply 👇 5/n

Here's what Section 8(1)(a) of the RTI Act 2005 says:

6/n

Basically, Indian government doesn't want to reveal what it is spending publicly budgeted aid money in #Myanmar on, because it believes that could harm #India's interests, foreign relations or incite an offence. Bit absurd. 7/n

This is strange, because Indian development projects in #Myanmar are no secret. The MEA itself routinely publishes briefs on them. Here's one from Oct 2020 (4 months before the coup): 8/n

So why the shroud of secrecy now? As taxpayers, we deserve to know where publicly budgeted Indian money is being spent abroad – especially in a country where a brutal regime is in control of the core state apparatus. 9/n

Best guess is most of the spending took place in big-ticket projects like IMT trilateral highway & #Kaladan. But both of them pass through border regions in Sagaing Region, Chin & Rakhine States that have seen constant conflict b/w junta, PDFs & EAOs since the coup. 10/n

Here, it might be prudent to mention that in January 2022, I had filed an RTI asking for details on India-Myanmar military training cooperation. I have received no reply so far, despite submitting an appeal. 11/n