Rajapaksa’s Delhi visit hints at thaw
Posted on September 9th, 2018
Courtesy The Hindu
Former Sri Lankan President seems to be warming to India.
In an indication of warming of ties, former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa will visit New Delhi this week and hold important discussions.
Mr. Rajapaksa, who is credited with ending the reign of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam with the military operations from 2006 to 2009, will deliver a public lecture on India-Sri Lanka relation: the way ahead” organised by the Virat Hindustan Sangam, led by BJP MP Subramanian Swamy. He is likely to meet Prime Minister Narendra Modi, National Security Adviser Ajit Doval and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. The External Affairs Ministry has not spoken about the meetings so far. A source said the visit was being planned by private parties”.
Sri Lanka’s former President Mahinda Rajapaksa speaks to his supporters during an anti-government protest in Colombo on September 5, 2018. | Photo Credit: REUTERS
Mr. Rajapaksa attended the swearing-in of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in May 2014. He lost his President’s post to Maithripala Sirisena in 2015. While he accused India of contributing to the regime change, he met Mr. Modi when the Prime Minister visited Sri Lanka in May 2017. The late-night meeting, apparently unscheduled, was organised at Mr. Rajapaksa’s request. After the war, New Delhi was disturbed by Mr. Rajapaksa’s apparent tilt towards China, which brought in massive investments to Sri Lanka. He was also criticised for the alleged human rights violations committed by the Sri Lankan military during the war.
The visit comes less than a week after thousands of demonstrators, led by Mr. Rajapaksa, protested in Colombo against the government’s economic policies and the delay in holding provincial elections.
The Rajapaksa camp is yet to name its candidate for the presidential election likely at the end of 2019. A 2015 constitutional amendment has placed a two-term limit on the presidency, thus barring the former President from contesting again, but Mr. Rajapaksa’s supporters have sought the Supreme Court’s clarification. There is an opinion that I can contest again. We need to find out if I am eligible,” he told presspersons recently.
Political sources in Colombo point to the efforts to groom his son and Hambantota MP, Namal Rajapaksa, who is accompanying his father on the India trip. He played a role in mobilising supporters for last week’s rally.
Though out of power for more than three years, Mr. Rajapaksa, who represents Kurunegala district in Parliament, remains a formidable political actor in Sri Lankan politics, often challenging the fractured coalition in power.
September 9th, 2018 at 5:33 pm
Trust India or an Indian?
Specially by subjects of an Indian colony.
For the Hinduthwa we are Dalits or Children of God as Mohandas Karamchand has said.
But not cast by Brahma.
September 9th, 2018 at 11:59 pm
India is never our friend nor will be in the future because they have done immense evil things to our beloved country politically and financially in my view. They are poking their fingers to our economy and other things behind our backs and sometimes openly. Majority of our citizens doesn’t like our government doing business with them. They are back Stabber’s. We cannot forget what they did to our country during the LTTE war. LTTE murderers were the creation of India. They helped those LTTE murderers to kill our innocent citizens. They financed them, trained them and provided them with arms and ammunition. We cannot forget so easily what those Indian parasites did to us. Never. I hope Mahinda Rajapaksa will not promise anything foolishly like previously. Our freedom and dignity cannot be sold to anyone. Sri Lanka’s sovereignty must be protected at all cost. The whole country is belongs to sri Lankans not Indians or Pakistanis or any other. We need a straight forward fearless leader to lead our country with real democracy and freedom not puppets like our current leaders who are selling our motherland piece by piece to any mother’s son for cash for them to stay in power and enjoy luxury lifestyles with their kith and kin. Help to save motherland and send this yamapalanaya packing as soon as possible.
September 10th, 2018 at 1:09 am
Disaster!
Hopefully China and Pakistan will counter this move by any means necessary. India was never our friend and never will.
September 10th, 2018 at 6:25 am
We got Indian Courts of the Indian puppet regime here.
They got Gota by the ear.
Is India going to tell Mahinda what to do so they will leave Gota alone?
September 10th, 2018 at 5:07 pm
West is trying very hard to keep terrorist alive at Idllib in Syria, exactly the same way they did at Mullativu.
India will never allow us to be free of Tamil problem. It is easy to get hold of one EP and twist his arms or bribe him. We need to face this with Sinhalaya’s voice as one voice. Only show of “Collective Power” will keep India at bay. Sinhalese must block vote to one patriotic party ( does not exist at the moment). Only when India sees that, our motherland can be straightened.
Sinhalease are brainwashed to keep hopes on one man or woman to come and depend on that person. Lee Kuan Yew alone did not straighten Singapore. He had educated professionals in the cabinet and he listened to them. He respected prediction of the learned and the eastern values. He did know that if you allow too much INDIANS, it is disaster. He did know that communist China ( before Tinnamen Incident) would be the other great threat. He kept both at bay and aligned with USA with conditions. We need a entirely different strategy. Our country is bigger and more populated and have too many Indians. Without keeping Indians checked all the time, we cannot raise the head.
All missions to India are suspicious.
September 10th, 2018 at 5:55 pm
We must be strong ourselves. Singapore became strong not by developing her economy. That came later. In the first place, it developed a military second to none in the region to counter the threat posed both by Malaysia and Indonesia. In Singapore every able-bodied person is called in for national service and they are trained to defend Singapore to the last man.
This is what the powerful countries respect although it is their second choice. Their first choice is to have a country completely under their domination. Failing this they try to win over by positively engaging with the country and having an alliance. This is what they did with Singapore. In Sri Lanka they have the first option!
We had this opportunity right after the end of the Eelam War at Nandi Kadal. We won all the battles but not the final war with the Eelamists, which is still going on. It was foolish at that time to have commenced the downgrading of our military. Consolidating the peace in a country that went through the longest war of the 20th Century shouldn’t have ended the way it did. We had the excuse to keep our military in place and position for a longer period. The victorious allies against the Axis Forces still keep their military in Europe and around Japan to keep in check Germany and Japan. Sri Lanka simply caved in!
Only a Sri Lanka that is militarily strong, will be respected. We had the capacity and the opportunity to have control over our land and around our borders – the seaboard. This was compromised by Mahinda Rajapakse – by being fooled by the Indians and later destroyed by Sirisena and now almost on the brink of being handed over to Western Christian Powers by Ranil the Bank Robber.
The only way to stand for India is to have a minimum of 500,000 men and women who can be called for national service at short notice. We still have the capacity to be the nation that provides security to the Southern Sea Lanes and a good part of the Indian Ocean. We just need to think BIG! For this we cannot have paupers for our leaders.
We need leaders with balls not eunuchs and deviants!
September 11th, 2018 at 4:02 am
At the time Lee came to power in Singapore the economy of the country was in the hands of Indian Colonial Parasites. They were the opium traders who did not use opium. Chinese and Malays were the addicts.
He hung drug dealers and transferred the economy from Indian Parasites to Chinese.
The biggest Emporium in Singapore at that time were relatives who ran the biggest Emporium in Colombo.