India has rubbished news reports that the Colombo station chief of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) had been expelled from Sri lanka before the Presidential election in December over complaints that he had worked with lanka’s Opposition parties to agree on a joint contender —Maithripala Sirisena —for the election. India has maintained that the officer’s departure was part of routine transfer at the end of his three-year tenure and nothing to do with lankan poll politics.
Spokesperson for Ministry of External Affairs Syed Akbaruddin denied all such reports that suggest India had a role in lanka’s internal political decisions. “The normal tenure of an Indian diplomat in Sri 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 RsYes’. Using unnamed sources is just hiding behind and obscuring the truth. If somebody has proof otherwise, I would stand ready to contest that. Otherwise take my view as the last word on that,” Akbaruddin said.
It is learnt that the RAW official had completed his three-year tenure in lanka in September last year and had returned to New Delhi much before elections in lanka. India’s denial came after news agency Reuters reported that India was asked to recall the RAW official in December for his involvement in gathering support for joint opposition candidate Sirisena after persuading him to ditch Mahinda Rajapaksa’s Cabinet.
Quoting a report in Sri lankan newspaper Reuters said that Rajapaksa’s unexpected defeat after two terms in office coincided with growing concern in India that it was losing influence in 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.
The news agency sourced an Indian official and a lankan lawmaker saying the RAW agent was recalled after complaints that he had worked with lanka’s Opposition parties to agree on a joint contender and even convince the main leader of the Opposition and former PM Ranil Wickremasinghe not to contest against Rajapaksa in the election and stand aside for someone who could be sure of winning.
The agent, reportedly, 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. Wickremasinghe, who is now PM again in Sirisena’s Government, met the man identified as the agent in the months before the vote, as well as with the Indian High Commissioner, the PM spokesman said but denied that the Indians had advised him.
Sri lanka’s then defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa — a brother of the former president Rajapaksa - reportedly, complained about the agent’s activities to Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in November when Doval visited lanka for a defence seminar, the Indian official said.
(with inputs from Reuters)