Bharat Rakshak

chetak wrote:Nothing much is going to change with the new dispensation.

The cries for the international inquiry will only become louder and the lankans cannot afford that inquiry.

The lankan tamils will remain where they are, as they have done for all these decades past.

India will build more houses and stuff.

The basic lankan character has not changed, only the govt has.

The former President suffered a debilitating setback in the Nuwara Eliya electoral district where Maithripala Sirisena won Nuwara Eliya-Maskeliya polling division by securing a staggering 171,578 votes (73.01 per cent) whereas Rajapaksa managed 57,718 votes (24.56 per cent).It had been the former President’s worst defeat at a particular polling division at Thursday’s election.

NEW DELHI: On a Sunday four months ago, a vessel pulled unannounced into Sri Lanka's Colombo harbor: the Chinese Navy submarine Great Wall No. 329, which is designed to carry torpedoes, a cruise missile and a 360-pound warhead.

Sri Lanka's defense minister shrugged it off as an "operational goodwill visit." But anxiety was already radiating as far as New Delhi, where the visit was seen as a clear declaration that China had arrived in India's backyard - with the blessing of Sri Lanka's president at the time, Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Whatever China's long-term plans were for strategically important Sri Lanka, they met with a sudden obstruction Friday morning, when Rajapaksa was voted out of office in a startling upset.

David Brewster, a visiting fellow at the Strategic and Defense Studies Center at the Australian National University, said that was the price to be paid for dealing with a government that had increasingly centralized power.

"You think you only need to deal with one guy," he said, "and then if you lose that one guy, it has a serious impact on the relationship."

Sri Lanka's alliance with China built gradually, during the years when Western nations excoriated Rajapaksa over his human rights record and China soothed him with billions of dollars in loans for new ports and roads. The relationship seemed to intensify in recent months, prompting fears in neighboring India that, despite vigorous official denials, Rajapaksa was ready to break with tradition and allow Sri Lankan territory to be used for Chinese military activity.

Chinese-funded infrastructure projects were among Rajapaksa's central accomplishments.

ravip wrote:

chetak wrote:Nothing much is going to change with the new dispensation.

The cries for the international inquiry will only become louder and the lankans cannot afford that inquiry.

The lankan tamils will remain where they are, as they have done for all these decades past.

India will build more houses and stuff.

The basic lankan character has not changed, only the govt has.

can we expect something on reducing china's influence in island???i have strange feeling it may not change, what is your opinion on this.

London: British Prime Minister David Cameron has asked Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena to facilitate the UN investigation into human rights abuses in the country. In his congratulatory message released by Downing Street in the UK, Cameron expressed hope that the issues of the past will be addressed. He said, “I congratulate Maithripala Sirisena on his victory in yesterday's Presidential election.

When I visited Sri Lanka I saw the huge potential the country has, and wish him well in taking every opportunity to help realise this potential and lead a stable, prosperous, united country”. “These peaceful, democratic elections are a credit to all those involved and the people of Sri Lanka.

I welcome the fact that outgoing President Rajapaksa has accepted the democratic will of the people and committed to ensuring a smooth transfer of power. “I encourage President elect Sirisensa to support the ongoing UN Office of the High Commission for Human Rights’ investigations,” he said.

Written by Kusal Perera

The Sri Lankan presidential election, scheduled for January 8, will be the first to see an incumbent president seek a third term since the executive presidency was installed in 1978. In all earlier presidential elections where the incumbent contested for the second term, none had lost. This election is said to be different, for many reasons. One, incumbent President Mahinda Rajapaksa is challenged by a cabinet minister from his own party, who surprised all by crossing over to the opposition just five days before nominations were declared. Two, this election promises change in the executive presidency that, over the past two decades, has been accepted as dictatorial. At each previous presidential election, candidates have vowed that the executive preisdency would be wholly abolished. But it was not. Three, this election has forged an unusual collage of political ideologies and contradictory ethno-religious perspectives into a joint platform against Rajapaksa. Thus , there is a growing feeling, especially in urban society, that Rajapaksa will be defeated, becoming the first incumbent to be voted out.

This Lankan presidential election, for other reasons, runs close to the Indian polls held in April and May 2014 that brought Narendra Modi to prime ministership with a huge majority. The Common Opposition Candidate (COC), Maithripala Sirisena, may not have the luxury of such a big victory. Nevertheless, he is also a “commoner” from the rural North Central Province, like Modi is from rural Gujarat. His political mentoring was in Sirimavo Bandaranayake’s Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) , which caters exclusively to the Sinhala constituency, like the BJP does to Hindutva. The political and ethno-religious parties and groups that comprise the common opposition include the Jathika Hela Urumaya (JHU), the Sri Lankan parallel to the RSS. The JHU not only leads the campaign, but has also left its Sinhala Buddhist footprints all over Sirisena’s election manifesto. And, as in the Indian elections, the central theme in the last few months and through the campaign was the hyped cry against family rule and mega-corruption.

Despite this large Sinhala Buddhist stamp on a would-be new government after January 8, the Muslim community en bloc and the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) have decided in favour of the COC. For the Muslim community, it is certainly about revenge against the Rajapaksa regime. The dominant southern Muslim community (among the two million-strong Muslim constituency) had always voted substantially with the SLFP under Bandaranayake. They have always preferred to compromise within mainstream politics than assert their political will. It is this “loyalty” that they feel was taken for granted by the Rajapaksa regime, when it openly patronised violent anti-Muslim campaigns that desecrated mosques and insulted their faith in the last year and a half. The turning point was the brutal attack on Muslims in Aluthgama-Beruwala, south of Colombo. That was what prompted all Muslim ministers and MPs to cross over to the opposition. They feared their own people would not vote for them at the next parliamentary elections if they stayed with the Rajapaksa campaign.

It was different with the TNA leadership, which was caught in a Catch-22 situation. It has grown strong as the main voice of the Sri Lankan Tamil polity, and that saddles it with the responsibility to pursue solutions within national politics. The TNA thus stands apart from the Tamil diaspora that still cries for separatism. That would have isolated the TNA from northeastern Tamils, who are no longer in the mood for separatist politics. The Tamil mood, especially in the north and Vanni, is very strong against Rajapaksa, whose Sinhala politics has left Tamils living under a disturbing and depressing military rule. All his infrastructure development, with roads and buildings, and the Indian-funded railway to the Jaffna peninsula, has not made much of an impact on Tamil society. Their priorities are different. They want the military removed and a civil administration established before anything else.

Despite the strong anti-Rajapaksa call, the TNA had big reservations about backing Sirisena, who does not pay any attention to even the basic demands of the northeastern Tamil people. Sirisena’s clear and loud pledge to the Sinhala south that his government would not remove the military from the North Eastern Province, his refusal to accept the UN resolution, his sticking to the position that any investigation would infringe on Sri Lanka’s sovereignty and that he would not allow international interference, as well as his ally, the JHU, reiterating its stand on the further reduction of powers to the provincial councils, left the TNA in a political quagmire.

Thus it took the TNA a long time to compromise and support Sirisena — on the single argument that Rajapaksa’s defeat this time would allow for a new political space to bargain anew on the immediate issues that Tamils eagerly seek answers to. The TNA probably also feels that, with the promise of Ranil Wickramasinghe being made prime minister and head of government, it should not make the fatal mistake the LTTE leadership did.

The whole argument rests on how much the TNA can deliver. So far, there has been no serious campaigning for Sirisena in the seven lakh-strong Tamil vote base in Vanni and Jaffna. Even at the first Northern Provincial Council elections — assumed to be the most vital election for the future of the northern Tamil people that also saw a lot of campaigning — only 67 per cent of votes were polled. In this presidential election, which has no attraction for Tamils and offers the TNA no reason to go beyond its political statement, polling could be drastically low.

It seems the Rajapaksa campaign had assessed that feeling in the north and east when the TNA was hesitant in deciding its stand. This is a situation Rajapaksa may exploit, with the military presence wholly controlled by his brother, Gotabhaya Rajapaksa, who is secretary, ministry of defence. The Rajapaksa campaign, therefore, amplified its claims to victory in the war, called Sirisena a stooge of the Tamil diaspora and Western interests, pushing him to deny all such claims with more Sinhala Buddhist rhetoric. Unfortunately for Sirisena, this not only makes him suspect in the mind of the Tamil voter, but also drags him in behind Rajapaksa in impressing the Sinhala constituency.

With such Sinhala racism, the trendsetting Uva Provincial Council elections held in September, which proved that over 22 per cent of the rural Sinhala people had decamped from the Rajapaksa vote base, went unnoticed, with no candidate addressing the issues of those rural people. They had their own socio-economic issues, distinct from those of the urban Sinhala middle class, which they wanted to be addressed. The two main campaigns took over the old Sinhala Buddhist slogans to compete against each other. That would leave the minority Tamils and Muslims out of mainstream politics, even if Sirisena is sworn in as president on January 10.

Within a week of Sirisena’s advent as the COC, the much-touted demand for the abolition of the executive presidency became a deformed promise. It will now make the presidency a restricted executive, holding on to defence, provincial council powers and overall supervision of governance. Whatever the final outcome, the space created may not be for the Tamils and the TNA but for the Sinhala south, which will not be interested in the north. It is a crazier drive on a circular path, to the same exit point.

The writer is a journalist based in Colombo

schinnas wrote:Given our leverage with SL and relationship with the new government elected to power, India should do its best to ensure that equal rights for all citizens and decentralization of power happens in SL. Over consolidation of power with Rajapakse was one of the reasons for state sponsored discrimination, widespread human rights abuses and large scale war crimes. There are no two ways about it.

habal wrote:Look at TN for example. It has disputes with 2 of it's 3 neighbours. Mostly water disputes with Karnataka, Kerala. Now just imagine if there were no central authority presiding over matters and left it to state govts and respective majorities to decide the outcome and the concerned parties just go with the flow of prevailing emotions. Supposing the South Indian states were independent entities, they would pretty much be facing a Sinhala-Tamil situation in all the 3 states. What does not lead to such a situation is the prevalence of a stronger central entity to manage disputes.

Sri Lanka is in the same situation but without a comparitively neutral central entity and is thus constantly under threat of violence that can flare up and go out of control. This presidential system in Sri Lanka and with the president always from a single community without even a token change of guard even once is going to lead to same set of problems from time to time. They also have no pressing need to devolve and spread powers out of presidential office so that a sense of justice is ensured for all communities there.

Also there would have been no overdependence on China or any one nation if powers were devolved out of presidential office. This is also a result of all economic descretionary powers as with everything else being vested in single office.

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena will visit India on his maiden foreign trip next month even as he ordered the release of all Indian fishermen in custody here as a goodwill gesture on the first day in office.

pankajs wrote:http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/new ... 835868.cms

India to be Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena's first foreign destination

COLOMBO: Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena will visit India on his maiden foreign trip next month even as he ordered the release of all Indian fishermen in custody here as a goodwill gesture on the first day in office.

chetak wrote:

habal wrote:Look at TN for example. It has disputes with 2 of it's 3 neighbours. Mostly water disputes with Karnataka, Kerala. Now just imagine if there were no central authority presiding over matters and left it to state govts and respective majorities to decide the outcome and the concerned parties just go with the flow of prevailing emotions. Supposing the South Indian states were independent entities, they would pretty much be facing a Sinhala-Tamil situation in all the 3 states. What does not lead to such a situation is the prevalence of a stronger central entity to manage disputes.

Sri Lanka is in the same situation but without a comparitively neutral central entity and is thus constantly under threat of violence that can flare up and go out of control. This presidential system in Sri Lanka and with the president always from a single community without even a token change of guard even once is going to lead to same set of problems from time to time. They also have no pressing need to devolve and spread powers out of presidential office so that a sense of justice is ensured for all communities there.

Also there would have been no overdependence on China or any one nation if powers were devolved out of presidential office. This is also a result of all economic descretionary powers as with everything else being vested in single office.

All through the congress rule in India, after independence, power was always invested in a single office. The lankan democracy is as good or as bad as ours.

In what way are we different?? Most of the time our parliamentary system is a joke.

habal wrote:in a dispute between two states in India, who intervenes. Central govt sends crpf and supreme court makes whatever judgement in dispute resolution. Such neutral central bodies are absent in Sri Lanka only because a state-sized entity is it's own country.

chetak wrote:

schinnas wrote:Given our leverage with SL and relationship with the new government elected to power, India should do its best to ensure that equal rights for all citizens and decentralization of power happens in SL. Over consolidation of power with Rajapakse was one of the reasons for state sponsored discrimination, widespread human rights abuses and large scale war crimes. There are no two ways about it.

Isn't there a similar "Over consolidation of power" with NaMo here??

murky TN politics is not something that the BJP will be keen to wade into.

schinnas wrote:

chetak wrote:{quote="schinnas"}Given our leverage with SL and relationship with the new government elected to power, India should do its best to ensure that equal rights for all citizens and decentralization of power happens in SL. Over consolidation of power with Rajapakse was one of the reasons for state sponsored discrimination, widespread human rights abuses and large scale war crimes. There are no two ways about it.{/quote}

Isn't there a similar "Over consolidation of power" with NaMo here??

murky TN politics is not something that the BJP will be keen to wade into.

This is the most comical == that I have seen, even more funnier than India Pak ==!

johneeG wrote: The difference seems to be that there are many sub-identities(regional/linguistic identities) in Bhaarath while there are only 2/3 sub-identities in other sub-continent countries.

So, essentially, it becomes a fight between 2/3 identities in other sub-continent countries. In Bhaarath, there are about 20/30 sub-identities and therefore, the focus gets shifted to other commonalities. Each sub-identity gets a feeling of belonging to a much larger union within Bhaarath. In other sub-continents, this feeling of belonging to a much larger union is absent. Of course, Hindhu civilization and history acts as a binding force within Bhaarath.

If other countries of sub-continent countries join Bhaarath, then those groups will also be able to adjust because they too feel develop the feeling of belonging to a much larger, ancient and powerful union.

saravana wrote:chetak, forget TN politics. What's wrong with having transport links with SL?

saravana wrote:It is not always a zero sum game. Right now Chinese may have the upper hand but with the new government and proper diplomacy we can claw our way back. It is our geographical zone not China's.
Not all SL Tamil love India and not all Sinhalese hate us. No point throwing the towel especially now

saravana wrote:We do have bus and train services from even Pakistan. Am sure there are some road services from Nepal. What is wrong with having one with SL? Moreover they have better per capita indices if you are worried about illegal migration

saravana wrote:I agree that having a big country next to you can generate loathing among some people. But having a foreign policy around that is being afraid of one's own shadow.
We could atleast start with a ferry service that can carry people and materials like the one between England and France. But if we are too diffident then we will vacate the advantage to braver country like China
We probably had great more goodwill during Nehru and his NAM. I doubt it helped us in anyway

Agence France-Presse
theguardian.com, Tuesday 13 January 2015 05.13 GMT

The personal astrologer of deposed president Mahinda Rajapaksa, Sumanadasa Abeygunawardena, 63, counselled that this week was a good time for election success. Photograph: STR/AFP/Getty Images

As a defeated Mahinda Rajapaksa slunk out of Sri Lanka’s presidential palace, the astrologer who counselled him to call a disastrous early election was gloomily packing his bags on the other side of town.

“Not all of Nostradamus’ predictions have come true either,” said Sumanadasa Abeygunawardena as he reflected both on the fate of his vanquished boss and his own reputation as a seer.

“There was only so much I could do to help him win, maybe 5%. But you must have luck to be the president.”
*(then who needs an astrologer,if all that is required is "lady luck"?)

The 63-year-old Abeygunawardena has been avoiding the media since last Thursday’s election, his reputation having taken a pounding from veteran leader Rajapaksa’s defeat to his rival Maithripala Sirisena.

During his increasingly authoritarian rule, the president became hugely reliant on his astrologer’s counsel and even timed the announcement of the snap election after consulting Abeygunawardena.

On voting day, Rajapakse appeared oblivious to his impending demise by declaring he was headed for “a resounding victory”.

While the outcome spelt the end of Rajapaksa’s decade in power, it was also a disaster for Abeygunawardena who had been lavishly rewarded by the man he calls “Our Sir” after advising him for 32 years.

In an interview with AFP, the normally ebullient Abeygunawardena admitted he was trying to keep a low profile for the moment, while confident that the setback would not lead all his followers to desert him.

“I am avoiding talking to people, especially the media, but I have a big following and they will not abandon me,” he said in a phone interview from his home in the coastal city of Galle.

Abeygunawardena said he had tried to console Rajapaksa after the outcome became clear in the early hours of Friday, before his old boss made his pre-dawn departure from his official residence in Colombo.

As Rajapakse made his exit, Abeygunawardena had to hand in the keys to a grace-and-favour bungalow in another part of the city. He also lost his limousine, chauffeur and vacated his seat on the board of a state-run bank.

Back in Galle, Abeygunawardena tried to put a brave face on his demise, insisting that he always knew Rajapaksa was doomed to lose – but didn’t have the heart to tell him. *(Ha!Ha!)

“If I did not tell him he was going to win, he would have been psychologically shattered. His defeat would have been much worse,” he said, saying the outcome had been written in the stars.

“In this case, the opponent’s horoscope is more powerful than that of Our Sir.”

Such foreboding was not in evidence at 1:04pm on November 20 when Rajapaksa signed the decree for an election after Abeygunawardena had advised that it was a particularly auspicious moment.

The election did not have to be held for another two years although conventional wisdom at the time was that Rajapaksa was likely to cruise to victory over a divided opposition.

But Rajapakse was blindsided by his then health minister Sirisena’s sudden defection to the ranks of the combined opposition, only hours after the two men dined together.

Abeygunawardena became tearful when pressed on the outcome, saying he carried out traditional rituals to ensure Rajapaksa voted at the right time while looking towards the chosen direction to ensure victory.

Even though he claims to also be a friend of Sirisena, Abeygunawardena admitted that he had not seen the defection coming.

If Abeygunawardena did indeed foresee Rajapaksa’s defeat, his reluctance to break the bad news might have stemmed from the fate of one of his colleagues who was arrested and thrown in jail in 2009 after publicly predicting that the president would lose the following year’s election.

Abeygunawardena is swift to claim credit for predicting Rajapaksa’s victories in both the 2005 and 2010 elections but says no astrologer can ever be 100% right, even the 16th century French seer Nostradamus.

“It is just not possible, otherwise I could just pay the 75,000 rupees ($570) deposit to run for president as an independent and go on to win the presidency,” he said. “You have to give us at least a 5% margin of error.”

And Abeygunawardena denied simply telling Rajapaksa what he wanted to hear, claiming that he had warned him not to accept the chair in office of the 53-member Commonwealth whose summit he hosted in Colombo in 2013.

The last chairman before Rajapaksa was Julia Gillard who was unseated as Australia’s premier after hosting the same event in 2011.

“That office is a crown with thorns. I told him not to take it,” Abeygunawardena said. “See what happened to Gillard? The same thing happened to Our Sir.”

Colombo, Jan. 13 :

Pope Francis called on Sri Lanka to uncover the truth of what happened during its bloody civil war as part of a healing process between religious communities, as he arrived in Colombo a few days after the island's wartime leaders were voted out.

Soon after landing in Buddhist-majority Sri Lanka, Francis appeared to make the case for a truth commission to investigate the 26-year civil war, an election pledge of the government voted into office on Thursday.

"The process of healing also needs to include the pursuit of truth, not for the sake of opening old wounds, but rather as a necessary means of promoting justice, healing and unity," he said, draped in a long garland of yellow and white roses.

Francis was speaking at Bandaranaike international airport, where he was met by President Maithripala Sirisena, troupes of dancers and a children's choir. Sirisena said the visit was a blessing for his new government.

The pontiff departed past a long line of costumed elephants, reaching their trunks towards his open-topped white jeep, which briefly came to a halt surrounded by crowds lining the road. The motorcade's slow progress through the late morning heat appeared to tire the 78-year-old and he cancelled a meeting with bishops.

"Due to the hot sun he could not go," said Sri Lankan Church spokesman Cyril Gamini. The Pope attended a later meeting with the President as scheduled.

Francis is the first pope to visit Sri Lanka in 20 years.

Fighting between the mainly Hindu Tamils and the and mostly Buddhist Sinhalese majority ended in 2009 with a crushing defeat for the Tamils. A 2011 UN estimate put the death toll from the final army assault at up to 40,000 civilians.

Pope Francis had first-hand experience of devastating civil strife as a priest in his native Argentina during its "Dirty War". A subsequent 50,000-page truth report revealed shocking details of kidnappings, rape and torture by the military junta. Francis will spend two days in Sri Lanka before heading to the Philippines as part of a trip aimed at shoring-up the church's presence in developing nations. The week-long tour is his second to Asia. The Pope carried a message of inter-faith dialogue, chiming with the new government's push for religious harmony.

"My government is promoting peace and friendship among our people after overcoming a cruel terrorist conflict. We have people who believe in religious tolerance and coexistence based on centuries old religious heritage," Sirisena said.

However, Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of Human Rights Watch, was doubtful the new government would agree to a UN inquiry into the end of the war.

"Sirisena has also said he is not going to back an international investigation," said Ganguly. About 70 per cent of Sri Lankans are Buddhists. Hindus make up about 13 per cent and Muslims 10 per cent. Catholics are about 7 per cent, split between ethnic Sinhalese and Tamils. Francis will canonise Sri Lanka's first Catholic saint tomorrow, and visit a pilgrimage site that was shelled in 1999.

National seer’s pratfall
January 15, 2015, 6:50 pm

It is with a sense of childish delight that I see the salubrious mess our former national seer Mr. Sumanadasa Abeygunawardena has got himself into. Had he said he would set himself alight if the president lost the election rest assured I would have been the first one in line to facilitate his noble cause with my lighter!

He has given me good reason to do so and now that he has lost the right to say "thamusae dannawo da mama kauda kiyala" to random people who talk to him, I can speak out about my wonderful experience with him. In summary, today is the day I tell him who I am. Much more eloquently, too, if I may add!

It all started one fine day in 2009, when I was stationed in Mannar General Hospital, working 15 hour shifts caring for the internally displaced towards the end of the war, that I had my run in with Mr. Abeygunawardena. At the time I was engaged to my campus sweetheart and we were to be married. Her father, a big shot in Galle, naturally was a pushy character who firmly believed the "my way or the highway" rule when it came to just about anything and everything Including the auspicious times of our nuptial arrangements. When he consulted Mr. Abeygunawardena, of whom he was an ardent fan, he was not only given, auspicious times for the wedding, but also told quite firmly that even the grooms’ parents should adhere strictly to the auspicious times given by him and nothing less.

Naturally, I received a call from my father-in-law (to be) instructing me quite firmly to tell my parents to abandon all hope of having any auspicious event the way they wanted because the good and kind Mr. Abeygunawardena had taken care of everything. When I refused, I was met with a wall of hostility, amongst which the theme ‘do you know who he is seemed to recur frequently.

Quite honestly, I didn’t, and I didn’t give a flying fig who he was either. Determined not to let some mumbo-jumbo man dictate the terms of my life to me, and having quickly realized that reasoning with my in-law was akin to waltzing with a dinosaur, I decided to call this chap directly, and set the record straight, and ask him to kindly restrain his business to his client only, and not interfere with the lives of unsuspecting third parties.

So, here began my titillating conversation with Mr. Abeygunawardena. After introducing myself as a doctor of the national service, I calmly proceeded to explain the events which had transpired subsequent to his meddling in my matters. I was expecting a thundershower of hubris.
Instead I was swamped by a tsunami of it!

There was an epic harangue which, to summarize for the civilized, went on to state very clearly whom he was working for (apey sir, I believe he called him) and how dare 1, a lowly government servant, presume to question his authority when he hath spoken? This tirade continued for a bit until he was wheezingand surely frothing at the mouth, and then he hung up.

A little later I get a call from a third party, claiming to be Mr. Abeygunawardane’s secretary. This man seemed a bit more cultured, and I wasn’t addressed as "thamusae" this time. He politely and firmly introduced himself and proceeded to explain that I had made his boss positively livid with rage, and he was `about to invoke the wrath of thirty three million deities on my head for the blasphemy I had committed. There was no hope for me, he proceeded to say, and apparently it was too late to apologise over the phone too. Quite tickled, I then asked him to humour me with what steps I can take to avoid that fate. Said he: "come to Galle within three days, fall at his feet, worship him and beg for his mercy or he will make your life a living hell. He has all your horoscope details. He has cursed you!"

Five years down the line, I can safely say Mr. Abeygunwardena has lived up to his stellar reputation. I have tasted nothing but success since that day.

And I take this opportunity to thank him. For cursing me so!
Quad erat demonstrandum.
Dr. Suneth Rajawasan
Mt. Lavinia

Sri Lanka's national airline on Saturday announced it will stop all flights to the country's second international airport built and named after Mahinda Rajapakse, after he was defeated in last week's presidential elections.

Sri Lankan Airlines said operating flights via the Rajapakse International airport in the former president's home constituency of Hambantota was a huge drain on the already heavily debt-laden carrier.

The state-owned airline -- under new management after new President Maithripala Sirisena assumed office last week -- has decided to cut back uneconomical flights, including operations via Rajapakse International.

"This translates to an annual bottom line improvement of approximately $18 million," the airline said in a statement.

The airline is weighed down with debts of nearly $650 million.

Was RAW Colombo chief shifted due to role in Rajapaksa's poll defeat?

John Chalmers and Sanjeev Miglani,

Jan 18, 2015

Sri Lanka expelled the Colombo station chief of India's spy agency in the run-up to this month's presidential election, political and intelligence sources said, accusing him of helping the opposition oust President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

An Indian foreign ministry spokesman denied any expulsion and said that transfers were routine decisions. Rajapaksa, voted out of office in the Jan 8 election, told Reuters he did not know all the facts while the new government in Colombo has said it is aware of the reports but cannot confirm them.

But several sources in both Colombo and New Delhi said India was asked to recall the agent in December for helping gather support for joint opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena after persuading him to ditch Rajapaksa's cabinet.

A sketchy report in Sri Lanka's Sunday Times newspaper on December 28 said that "links with the common opposition" had cost India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) station chief his job in Colombo.

India has often been involved in the internal politics of the small island nation off its southern coast - it sent troops there in 1987 in a botched effort to broker peace between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels.

Rajapaksa's unexpected defeat after two terms in office coincided with growing concern in India that it was losing influence in Sri Lanka because of the former president's tilt toward regional rival China.

The concern turned to alarm late last year when Rajapaksa allowed two Chinese submarines to dock in Sri Lanka without warning New Delhi as he should have under a standing agreement, the sources said.

Sirisena, the new president, has said he will visit New Delhi on his first foreign trip next month and has said India is the "first, main concern" of his foreign policy.

An Indian official said the RAW agent was recalled after complaints that he had worked with Sri Lanka's usually fractious opposition parties to agree on a joint contender for the election. Then, he was accused of facilitating meetings to encourage several lawmakers, among them Sirisena, to defect from Rajapaksa's party, the official said.

The agent was accused of playing a role in convincing the main leader of the opposition and former prime minister Ranil Wickremasinghe not to contest against Rajapaksa in the election and stand aside for someone who could be sure of winning, said the officer and a Sri Lankan lawmaker who also maintains close contacts with India.

The agent was also in touch with former president Chandrika Kumaratunga, who was a key player in convincing Sirisena to stand, said the officer and the lawmaker, who also confirmed that the agent had been asked to leave. "They actively were involved, talking to Ranil, getting those things organised, talking to Chandrika," the lawmaker told Reuters.

"CERTAIN THINGS YOU DON'T TALK ABOUT"

Wickremasinghe, who is now prime minister again in Sirisena's government, met "two or three times" with the man identified as the agent in the months before the vote, as well as with the Indian high commissioner, or ambassador, the prime minister's spokesman said.

"They discussed the current political situation," Wickremasinghe's spokesman said, but he denied that the Indians had advised him. "He does not know if he advised other politicians."

It was not clear if Wickremasinghe was aware at the time that he was meeting with an intelligence official. India's RAW officers are usually given diplomatic posts when assigned to foreign missions.

Former president Kumaratunga did not respond to requests for comment.

Rajapaksa declined to confirm the involvement of India in the campaign against him.

"I don't know, I won't suspect anybody until I get my real facts," he said at his party headquarters.

"There are certain things you don't talk about," a close associate of the Rajapaksa family said, but added that "there were clear signs of a deep campaign by foreign elements."

Sri Lanka's then defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa - a brother of the former president - complained about the agent's activities to Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in November when Doval was visiting the island nation for a defence seminar, the Indian official said.

Another Indian official, who monitors the region for security threats, said New Delhi had been watching Beijing's growing influence and heavy investments in Sri Lanka under Rajapaksa, who visited China seven times since becoming president in 2005. But India was stunned and angry last year when the Chinese submarines docked in Sri Lanka on two separate occasions, a step New Delhi saw as part of Beijing's "string of pearls" strategy to secure a foothold in South Asia and maritime access through the Indian Ocean. "The turning point in the relationship was the submarines.

There was real anger," the Indian security official said. Indian military officials said that New Delhi reminded Sri Lanka it was obliged to inform its neighbours about such port calls under a maritime pact, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue with Rajapaksa at a meeting in New York.

In a possible sign of shifting allegiances, India's top envoy in Colombo, High Commissioner Y.K. Sinha, presented Sirisena with a large bouquet of flowers just hours after the results were announced on Jan 9. China's ambassador was only able to meet the new president six days later.