In his first overseas tour after taking reins of Sri Lanka over a week ago, President Gotabaya Rajapaksa arrived on a three-day visit, signalling his intent to deepen bilateral ties with India. Gotabaya won the elections securing 52 per cent of the votes, while his main opponent, Sajith Premadasa of the United National Party, finished with 42 per cent.
Gotabaya, who was defence secretary under elder brother and former president Mahinda Rajapaksa, cruised to victory by focusing on two key issues—security and economy. His trump card was security as Sri Lankans continue to be haunted by the April attacks. Gotabaya ran an aggressive campaign reminding the people about the intelligence failure that led to the attacks. On the economy front, he promised to deliver on the reform agenda. Once elected, Gotabaya, 70, named Mahinda as the new prime minister after Ranil Wickremesinghe announced his resignation.
On Friday, Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Narendra Modi will hold extensive talks to explore ways to further expand the already close ties between the two neighbouring countries. A plethora of issues including fulfilling aspirations of Tamil community in Sri Lanka, situation in the Indian Ocean region and steps to boost trade and investment ties are likely to figure in the talks. In a tweet, before leaving for New Delhi, Rajapaksa said he was looking forward to strengthening bilateral relations with India. "Leaving for my first state visit to India and looking forward to strengthening bilateral relations with Shri @narendramodi and Govt of India," he said. The Sri Lankan leader will also meet President Ram Nath Kovind. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar travelled to Colombo last week as a special envoy of Prime Minister Modi to convey his greetings to Rajapaksa.
But, what can India expect from the newly elected president of Sri Lanka?
A pivot to China
The powerful Rajapaksa dynasty known for its pro-China tilt. Premadasa, meanwhile, was considered leaning more towards India and the US. The election result will have a bearing on India's presence in the Indian Ocean region where Beijing is increasingly making inroads. India, meanwhile, is looking at the return of the Rajapaksas with some concern. Mahinda, who had lost in 2015, had blamed the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW). He also alleged that India brought Sirisena and Wickremesinghe together to keep him out of power. China, which has acquired Sri Lanka's Hambantota port in 2017 as a debt swap, has been ramping up its ties with the island nation and expanded its naval presence in the Indian Ocean with an established logistics base in Djibouti. Beijing in July gifted a warship to Sri Lanka, in a growing sign of its deepening military cooperation with the strategically located island nation in the Indian Ocean. Sri Lanka subsequently became an enthusiastic participant in the Belt and Road Initiative. Mahinda even allowed a Chinese submarine and a warship to dock at the Colombo port despite India’s objections.
On foreign policy, the newly-elected president had noted that Sri Lanka will remain friendly with all nations but would remain neutral so as to stay out of conflicts between international powers, Sri Lankan news outlet News First reported.
In an interview with THE WEEK, Gotabaya said fears regarding Sri Lanka's closeness to China were misplaced. "I think it was misunderstood. Of course the China-Sri Lanka relationship was a diplomatic relationship. It was very old. But during our period, after the war, there was a lot of Chinese investment in Sri Lanka. That was purely a commercial arrangement, because after the war we needed quick development in the country. We never forgot about the national security issues and our relationship with India; we categorically said that we will not allow any country to have military presence in Sri Lanka and that we will not do anything that will [cause] any security concerns for India."
Fear among minority Muslims, Tamils
Gotabaya, who ruthlessly ended Sri Lanka's nearly 30-year civil war with the LTTE, is both respected and reviled in the island nation where he is considered a "war hero" by the Sinhalese Buddhist majority, but mostly distrusted by the minority Tamils. Though dubbed as "war hero", the role of Rajapaksa in ending the conflict with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) with the death of its supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran in 2009 is quite divisive as he stands accused of violating human rights, a charge he vehemently denies. Rajapaksa is accused of overseeing torturing and indiscriminate killings of both civilians and combatants, and later of political assassinations. He and his brother Mahinda are also accused of condoning sexual violence and extrajudicial killings, allegedly by Lankan security forces during the war.
While Gotabaya’s return has brought cheer to the Sinhala majority, the Tamils and Muslims are disappointed. In the north and the east, where the Tamils and the Muslims live, Gotabaya finished way behind Premadasa. While the Rajapaksas claimed that they had brought in infrastructure development and rehabilitated the war-affected people in the Northern Province, the Tamils are still traumatised by the torture they endured, especially during the last stages of the civil war. Many people in the region think of Gotabaya as a war criminal, although the SLPP worked hard in the province for the Tamil votes.
In THE WEEK interview, Gotabaya said, "I did not start the war. It was started in late 1979. And when I took over [as defence secretary in 2005], the war was at a critical juncture. I didn’t create the LTTE. It was a strong terrorist group by that time. It is not the Rajapaksas who created the war. The previous governments and their mistakes did it. "
MDMK leader Vaiko and his party workers staged a protest against Gotabaya at Jantar Mantar on Thursday, ahead of the foreign leader's arrival in India. "The government of Narendra Modi is hobnobbing with the Sri Lankan government. This is nothing but terrible betrayal of Tamils. Tamils in Sri Lanka are afraid and are in serious panic," he said, according to a party statement released in Chennai. Fishermen of Tamil Nadu are repeatedly attacked by the Sri Lankan Navy, he alleged. "More than 580 Tamil fishermen have been killed in the past 30 years and their boats seized. Many more were put behind bars in Sri Lanka," he alleged.
-Inputs from Lakshmi Subramanian, PTI
