Suu Kyi’s college speaks up for her

Nobel laureate and Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi found fresh support from her alma mater — Lady Sri Ram College (LSR) on Thursday, reports Shubhodeep Chakravarty.

Nobel laureate and Myanmar leader Aung San Suu Kyi found fresh support from her alma mater — Lady Sri Ram College (LSR) on Thursday.

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The red brick walls of LSR — witness to the passionate debates of the political science student way back in 1963 — saw panelists, students and teachers make a case for her release.

Last month, Suu Kyi, who has spent 14 of the last 20 years under house arrest, was sentenced to an 18-month detention by a court in Myanmar.

The panel discussion was part of a larger campaign to mobilise support for the her. The panel, which including former ambassador to Myanmar G. Parthasarthy and political activist Jaya Jaitly, outlined the need to mobilise support against the undemocratic detention of Suu Kyi by the ruling military junta.

“We value our democracy. This makes it imperative for us to respect the democracy of others and gather support against any violations that undermine it,” said Jaitly to an audience of close to 400 students and number of Myanmarese in exile. This despite the fact that a final-year philosophy honours student had tested positive for H1N1 and the entire batch sent on leave for a week.

Suu Kyi’s teachers remembered as “a gentle girl with a great deal of poise”.

“In those days, I had a batch of 12 students and Suu Kyi was one of them. She wasn’t arrogance at being a diplomat’s daughter,” said Nirmala Khanna, who taught her Political Science.