Indian govt cannot champion democracy abroad and host its destroyer at home: SIF

Mizzima

The Strategic Initiative Forum (SIF) says it categorically rejects the India Government designation of Min Aung Hlaing as “President of the Republic of the Union of Myanmar” in its May 28, 2026 MEA press release.

SIF says this is not diplomatic protocol. It is the legitimization of a brutal coup attempt by the Military in Myanmar. And the popular narrative that the junta’s first trip to India signals a desire to distance from China is wrong.

The following is SIF’s press statement:

HE DID NOT WIN AN ELECTION. MIN AUNG HLAING IS NOT A PRESIDENT

Min Aung Hlaing holds no electoral mandate. In Myanmar’s last free and fair election on November 8, 2020, the National League for Democracy won 396 of 498 Union Parliament seats and 82% of all elected seats nationwide — on a turnout of 71.89%, representing 25.9 million votes. The junta’s own political proxy, the USDP, won just 33 seats. On February 1, 2021 — the day Parliament was to convene — the military arrested the elected government and seized power by force.

To manufacture a presidency, the junta staged a three-phase election from December 28, 2025 to January 25, 2026. Over 40 political parties were dissolved, including the NLD, eliminating parties representing 72% of the 2020 popular vote. Nearly 23,000 political prisoners were held at the time of polling. An estimated 10.5 million voters were structurally excluded. The result: just 13.1 million votes cast versus 25.9 million in 2020. In Chin State, turnout fell below 5%. During the election period, the junta launched 308 airstrikes across 89 townships, killing 281 civilians. The United Nations, ASEAN, the European Union, Human Rights Watch, FIDH, ANFREL and over 300 civil society organizations publicly rejected the results as illegitimate.

The Indian Government provided the Electronic Voting Machines and biometric systems used in this fraudulent exercise. Now they receive its architect as a head of state.

THE JUNTA’S TRIP TO INDIA IS NOT BALANCING CHINA. IT IS KEPT ALIVE BY CHINA.

The claim that this visit signals strategic balancing that Myanmar seeks alternatives to China, that India offers a relationship without domination — cannot survive the facts.

Chinese Government pledged $3 billion to the junta in late 2024 to fund its sham elections. Chinese drones and weapons won back Kyaukme in August 2025. Over $1 billion in Chinese arms transfers have reached the junta since 2021, documented by the UN Special Rapporteur. Beijing blocked dual-use technology exports to resistance groups at the junta’s own request. China brokered the MNDAA ceasefire and handed Lashio back to the junta. Xi Jinping met Min Aung Hlaing at the SCO Summit just nine months ago.

This is not a patron being distanced. This is a patron managing its client.

On sovereignty: Chinese Government has erected over 600 km of border fencing in direct violation of the 1960 China-Myanmar Boundary Treaty. Since December 2025, fencing has advanced up to 100 meters into Myanmar territory near Chinshwehaw, Kyukok-Pansai, and Namtit. Three homes in Chinshwehaw now sit on the Chinese side. The junta’s response was not protest — it was censorship, pressuring media to remove coverage while its own Foreign Ministry pleaded ignorance.

A sovereign government protests. It invokes treaties. It demands re-demarcation. This junta suppressed the story to avoid offending the patron, keeping it alive.

INDIA GOVERNMENT IS BEING ASKED TO LEGITIMIZE DESPERATION.

The junta today controls less than half of Myanmar’s territory. Resistance forces contest or control over 235 townships. Its sham election drew barely half the votes of the free 2020 election. Its economy is propped up by Chinese aid and a criminal border economy that generated $15.3 billion in cybercrime revenues in 2023 — nearly a quarter of GDP.

One visit to New Delhi changes none of this. India is being asked to provide the image of strategic relevance that the junta no longer possesses on the ground. The cost to India’s democratic credibility is real. The benefit to Myanmar’s people is zero.

The real Myanmar — its democratic forces, its ethnic peoples, its civil society, represented by SIF’s 20 member organizations across Karenni, Karen, Kachin, Mon, Arakan and other communities — seeks genuine partnership with India. Not the laundering of the regime that has bombed their townships, imprisoned their leaders, and handed their land to China.

Strategic Initiative Forum (SIF) | strategic.initiative.forum@proton.me

1. Karenni National Progressive Party (KNPP)

2. Karen National Union (KNU)

3. Democratic Party for A New Society (DPNS)

4. Arakan League for Democracy (ALD)

5. Karen National Party (KNP)

6. Social Democratic Party (SDP)

7. General Strike Committee (GSC)

8. All Burma Federation of Student’s Union (ABFSU)

9. Democracy Movement Strike Committee – Dawei (DDMSC)

10. Kachin State Civilian Movement (KSCM)

11. Union of Karenni State Youth (UKSY)

12. Dictatorship Revolution and People’s Defense Network (DRPDN)

13. All Arakan Students’ and Youths’ Congress (AASYC)

14. Progressive Labor Community (PLC)

15. Anonymous Organization working on Facts Checking

16. All Kachin Students and Youth Union (AKSYU)

17. India For Myanmar

18. Mon State Development Committee (MSDC)

19. NRFF – New Rehmonnya Federated Force

20. Karen Youth Organization

The Strategic Initiative Forum (SIF) established since 2022 is a coalition of 20 ethnic revolutionary organizations, political parties, strike committees and civil society groups united in the struggle to establish a Federal Democratic Union in Myanmar. Through its Anti-Sham Election Campaign Committee (ASECC), SIF mobilized resistance against the junta’s fraudulent elections across nearly 100 townships over the past four years.