It is important to remember what sparked off these protests. The monks made good their ultimatum to come out on the streets after the Burmese government doubled the price of fuel. It is this focus on the dire economic situation in ordinary Burmese households that has given the pro-democracy movement traction. It is not clear, however, whether the protesters — even with the monks on board — have the capacity to maintain resistance against the generals. The Burmese military, in effect, the only arm of state in the country, is adept at fighting many wars at the same time. Against insurgents who have been with arms before independence came in the 1940s and against any democratic challenge to their hold on power. The point is, who do sanctions then work against? The military or ordinary Burmese?

The generals, in any case, have been working around the sanctions. They must be told, as they hold out leases for gas and oil exploration and give China the promise of greater access to the Indian Ocean, that their policy of playing one country against another is unacceptable. And as our columnist notes, with a political transformation in Burma so likely, it is by weighing in on the side of that transformation that India can meet its own strategic objective, of countering Chinese influence in the country.