Rajapaksa must look within, and not blame India
The most charitable explanation one can give for former Sri lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa's remark that India had, among other countries, contributed to his defeat in the election, is that he is speaking from a sense of frustration over the defeat. In the first place, no amount of skull-duggery by outside powers could have influenced Sri lanka's voters into giving a thumping mandate against him and his Government. The reasons for his defeat are there in black and white, and they have been analysed threadbare. Mr Rajapaksa should acknowledge them and learn lessons from the mistakes he made during his rein. Moreover, it beats reason why India, which enjoyed the best of relations with his Government and especially him personally, should have conspired to seek his defeat.
It is true that New Delhi under the Congress-led UPA regime had taken certain positions that appeared to undermine his image, but even those positions had been roundly criticised by bipartisan observers here who believed that this was a sure way of pushing Mr Rajapaksa into China's arms. It is also true that Beijing's influence in Sri lanka had grown during the then President's tenure, but then again, that had been attributed more to the Manmohan Singh regime's lackadaisical attitude towards Colombo than to Mr Rajapaksa's genuine love for the Chinese. Also, while it is a fact that New Delhi had been less than happy with Mr Rajapaksa's seemingly unbending posture towards reconciliation with the Tamil minority population, it had not pushed him to the brink over the issue.
By and large, therefore, New Delhi had counted on him as a friend. After taking over as Prime Minister, Mr Narendra Modi had sought to mend fences by inviting, among other South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation leaders, Mr Rajapaksa to his oath-taking ceremony in New Delhi. Given this background, it is difficult to digest Mr Rajapaksa's rant against India. He claims that India's external intelligence agency, the Research & Analysis Wing, had been part of a plot to oust him. The unsaid but obvious accusation was that the Government of India was directly involved. Indian officials have already rubbished the charge. Why would India have wanted to see Mr Rajapaksa's back when it was not even sure that a new dispensation would be more ‘friendly'IJ
Indeed, as things stand, Sri lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wikremesinghe has hardly set the ball rolling in building a deeper friendship between New Delhi and Colombo by sternly warning Indian fishermen that they would be shot dead if they strayed into lankan waters. He has also favoured a review of projects during Mr Rajapaksa's tenure that had Indian (or Chinese) partnerships to check on ‘corruption'. It is too early to predict how the bilateral relationship will proceed. We must give time for the lost trust to return. Meanwhile, Mr Rajapaksa must stop his blame-game and genuinely introspect.