I feel I am partly a citizen of India, says nostalgic Suu Kyi during visit to Delhi's LSR College
New Delhi, Nov. 16 (ANI)
Travelling down the memory lane, Nobel Laureate and Myanmar opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi said on Friday that she felt that she was partly a citizen of India, given that she had acquired her college degree from her alma mater Lady Sri Ram (LSR) College for Women here.
Suu Kyi was given a standing ovation when she entered the college auditorium, where according to her, she learned how to sing.
"Coming back to Lady Shri Ram College, it's not just coming home, it's coming to a place where I can feel that my hopes have not been in vain. This is what Lady Shri Ram and its young girls have done for me," said Suu Kyi.
Accompanied by Minister of State for Human Resource Development Shashi Tharoor, Suu Kyi was all smiles, while sitting on stage and listening to a choir recitation of a poem by Rabindranath Tagore.
"When they were singing Tagore's song, and then, I looked at them, and they looked back at me, I could feel that they understood what I wanted out of life, for them, as well as for me and my people. Our hopes are all the same," she added.
Describing her emotional bonding with the college and India, she said: "I feel myself partly a citizen of India- a citizen of love and honour."
Suu Kyi added that she wanted girls in her country to also experience campus life and not go to university to attend lectures.
The 67-year-old leader said she was deeply moved by Tagore's song and added that her optimism had been rejuvenated.
"I hope that in Burma (Myanmar), we can build the kind of democratic politics, where opponents in the political fields can be friends, for the sake of the country, and friends for the sake of their own humanity. This is the kind of democratic politics that I would like to see in Burma," Suu Kyi added.
A landslide by-election victory in April this year propelled Suu Kyi into Myanmar's parliament and made her an influential voice in the country's newly empowered democracy.
Her election to parliament helped to transform the pariah image of Myanmar and persuaded the West to begin rolling back sanctions after a year of dramatic reforms, including the release of about 700 political prisoners in amnesties between May 2011 and July 2012.
Asking students not to compromise on their "principles", she termed "unprincipled politics" as one of the most dangerous things in the world.
"We need you to help us in our progression towards democracy. We are trying to achieve democracy. In our endeavour we need you, we need your help," she added.
In July 1947, six months before his country gained independence from the British, her father, General Aung San, was assassinated. She was raised by her mother and was sent to Delhi for her under graduation and later to Oxford for higher studies.
Suu Kyi won the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize for championing democracy in opposition to the dictatorship enforced by a military junta that held her under house arrest. She spent about 21 years under house arrest.