Suu Kyi arrives in India on nostalgic visit

New Delhi, Nov 13 (IANS) Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi arrived here Tuesday on a six-day visit as part of India’s engagement with the multi-party polity in Myanmar.

Suu Kyi, chairperson of the National League of Democracy of Myanmar, flashed a traditional “namaste” as she stepped out of the aircraft that brought her from Yangon.

She will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Wednesday, the day when she delivers the Nehru memorial lecture on the occasion of Jawaharlal Nehru’s birth anniversary.

Suu Kyi is also scheduled to meet Vice President Hamid Ansari, Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar, Congress president Sonia Gandhi and External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid.

A Nobel prize winner, Suu Kyi spent her formative years in India when her mother was her country’s ambassador to India and Nepal.

Suu Kyi studied at the Convent of Jesus and Mary School and graduated from Lady Shri Ram College here.

She will go to her college to meet the faculty and students.

She will visit to The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) in Gurgaon, before flying to Bangalore and Andhra Pradesh.

India awarded Suu Kyi the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1992 while she was under house arrest under the military government in Myanmar.

During the Indian prime minister’s visit to Myanmar in May, Suu Kyi had spoken of the need for greater exchanges between the people of the two countries.

IANS 2012-11-13 15:18:19