India denies RAW's role in Mahinda Rajapaksa's defeat

NEW DELHI: India has vehemently denied a Sri Lankan media report that around a month ago Colombo had expelled the station chief of the Research & Analysis Wing posted in the High Commission after the erstwhile Mahinda Rajapaksa government suspected him of convincing warring opposition parties to put up a consensus candidate and challenge Rajapaksa in the presidential polls.

In the presidential polls concluded last week, Rajapaksa had lost the polls to his friend-turned-foe Maithripala Sirisena, who was the common candidate representing a rainbow coalition of Opposition parties ranging from Marxists to Buddhist monks. Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin rubbished the report that appeared in Colombo’s Sunday Times newspaper and termed the transfer in question as part of bureaucratic routine.

“The normal tenure of an Indian diplomat in Lanka is three years and all officials who have been transferred during last year have completed that.



It is a normal transfer. Do not read anything into it unless somebody stands up and says ‘yes’. Using unnamed sources is just hiding behind and obscuring the truth,” he said. “If somebody has proof otherwise, I would stand ready to contest that. Otherwise take my view as the last word on that,” Akbaruddin said.

On Sunday, Reuters quoted the Lankan paper as saying the Indian agent was accused of playing a role in convincing the main leader of the opposition Ranil Wickremasinghe not to contest against Rajapaksa in the election and stand aside for someone who could be sure of winning. The paper quoted a Lankan lawmaker who also maintains “close contacts” with India.

New Delhi has been wary for a long while about Rajapaksa administration’s tilt in policy towards China. In September, ahead of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s visit to Lanka, Colombo had allowed Chinese submarines to dock off Lankan coast.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi took up this issue with Rajapaksa when he met him in New York on the sidelines of the UN, said official sources. However, Chinese submarines were back again in Colombo in October which India viewed as national security risks posed by Beijing’s ‘string of pearls’ strategy.

The new government led by Sirisena, which according to the Lankan paper, was a direct result of New Delhi stepping in and solving internal bickering of anti-Rajapaksa parties, has started showing signs of warmth. New foreign minister Mangala Samaraweera made Delhi his first stop abroad less than a week after being sworn in.