Angshuman Choudhury Profile picture
Associate Fellow @CPR_India | foreign policy, conflict, identity | area focus: Myanmar, Northeast India | @Durham_SGIA alum | from Assam | views personal
প্রদীপ্ত মৈত্র (Pradipto Moitra) Profile picture 1 subscribed
Jul 20, 2023 4 tweets 2 min read
The liberal Meitei sophistry and spindoctoring has begun (as expected).

What is this JNU prof trying to say exactly? That the assault on the Kuki women has roots in the Partition?

Whom does he refer to when he says “separatist & exclusivist”? Kukis?

Shameless! Image The ethnocentric left from the Northeast will say ANYTHING but call out their own communities (like any honest intellectual/scholar must). They can even whitewash the most heinous of crimes by propping up the facade of historical continuity & colonial legacies.
Mar 13, 2023 12 tweets 8 min read
Today, #India's Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) released its Annual Report of 2022.

What does it say about #Myanmar? Any change in tone and content from last year's report?

A thread 🧵 (1/n) Image Introductory section:

2022 report projects the usual Indian diplomatic, "neutral" narrative on post-coup #Myanmar – except the following sentence that appeared in the 2021 report:

"Restoration of democracy in Myanmar remains a priority."

L: 2022 report; R: 2021 report (2/n) ImageImage
Mar 11, 2023 6 tweets 3 min read
🧵"China wants peace" is too simplistic a narrative.

Weeks before the #China-brokered deal b/w #Iran & #SaudiArabia was announced, Beijing sent its top envoy, Deng Xijun, to northern #Myanmar to meet top ethnic rebel groups & convince them to sign ceasefire deals with the junta. And last week, Xijun travelled to Nay Pyi Taw to meet the coup leader, Min Aung Hlaing. Beijing wants to tell the US (which has sanctioned "non-lethal" aid to the democratic resistance) that it has more access in Burmese power corridors.
irrawaddy.com/opinion/analys…
Mar 11, 2023 8 tweets 6 min read
🚨 IMPORTANT: The #Manipur gov has withdrawn its Suspension of Operations (SoO) agreement with the Kuki National Army (KNA) & Zomi Revolutionary Army (ZRA) following violent clashes between some Kuki groups & police over encroachment of tribal land. (1/8)
nenow.in/north-east-new… Protests have taken place in mostly Kangpokpi district, but also in Churachandpur & Tengnoupal districts. Demonstrators allege that the #BirenSingh gov has been taking over tribal land in the name of expanding reserve forests & wildlife sanctuaries. (2/8)
thehindu.com/news/national/…
Feb 18, 2023 6 tweets 3 min read
Yesterday, #India's Development of North Eastern Region (DONER) minister virtually met the #Myanmar junta's Minister of Border Affairs.

Here's the Indian press release on the meeting. Few salient points... 🧵(1/n)

pib.gov.in/PressReleseDet… Image - New Delhi continues to wager on the junta to keep its Northeastern borders secure & stable;

- India wants to resume its development projects, including the Border Area Development Projects (BADP), in #Myanmar at the earliest. Most of these are funded by grants; (2/n)
Feb 11, 2023 6 tweets 4 min read
👋🏾 all, I’ve been running @eleventhcolumn since 2017 along with my talented friend @ahmausaf. We’ve managed to create a rich repository of 600+ pieces (both fiction & non-fiction) on politics, geopolitics, environment, society, worker rights & other themes. (1/n) We don’t have any budget beyond basic server & domain upkeep costs. We stopped publishing in late 2021 due to technical challenges. But we’re slowly beginning to publish again.

Do check out our website eleventhcolumn.com & write for us! (2/n)
Jan 18, 2023 10 tweets 6 min read
🧵 Quick glance at the #India sections of this detailed & timely report by @SpecialCouncil on the global supply network of the #Myanmar junta's defence production industry. (1/n)

Full report: bit.ly/3XzNbh6 Image The @SpecialCouncil found that the #Myanmar junta was relying on defence production supplies from #India (among other countries) because of deteriorating quality of Chinese products. This new dynamic creates a major incentive for the supply side. (2/n)
Sep 24, 2022 11 tweets 5 min read
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