In Vikaspuri, she speaks Burmese: I want them to feel they’re back home

New Delhi : The grounds of Oxford Senior Secondary School, Vikaspuri, were sheathed in white on Friday afternoon. Scores of National League of Democracy (NLD) flags, Aung San Suu Kyi’s party in Myanmar, fluttered with the Tricolour under a white canopy.

This was the first time Suu Kyi was visiting the 10,000-odd Burmese community living in Delhi and other parts of India.

She started with an apology to her Indian friends. “I’m going to speak in Burmese, I want them to feel that they’re back home.”

In her short address, she dwelled on unity, Myanmar’s constitution, and return of law and order in the country. She asked the Burmese community, living in India as a minority, to understand the situation in Myanmar.

She said Myanmar wasn’t a democracy yet, “this is the last leg of the transition to democracy and the most difficult”. She said the 2015 elections “may be free but won’t be fair” if the constitution is not amended.

As Suu Kyi’s address came to a close and she walked off stage, the community thanked her and left the grounds with renewed optimism.

Agga, a monk who came to India in 2004, said: “We have many questions for her, but we leave happy and confident.”