PM Modi congragulates Mahinda Rajapaksa on victory in Sri Lanka parliamentary polls

India moves fast to reach out to Rajapaksa Clan as poll results likely to give an edge to China

With the party led by Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his elder brother Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa poised to have a landslide victory in the parliamentary elections in the island nation, New Delhi on Thursday moved quickly to reach out to the clan, which is set to rule the roost in the country in the next few years.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi was the first foreign leader to call his Sri Lankan counterpart Mahinda Rajapaksa after the early results indicated that the party led by the clan would win majority of the seats in the 225-member Parliament of the Indian Ocean island nation.

Modi congratulated Mahinda Rajapaksa on the imminent victory of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) – the party, which the tiny nation’s Prime Minister runs with his younger brothers.

“Thank you! PM @narendramodi for your congratulatory phone call. With the strong support of the people of #SriLanka, I look forward to working with you closely to further enhance the long-standing cooperation between our two countries. Sri Lanka & (and) India are friends & (and) relations.” Mahinda Rajapaksa posted on Twitter, after talking to the Prime Minister of India.

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“Thank you, Prime Minister @PresRajapaksa! It was a pleasure to speak to you. Once again, many congratulations. We will work together to further advance all areas of bilateral cooperation and to take our special ties to ever newer heights,” replied Modi.

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New Delhi moved fast to reach out to the Rajapaksa Clan as the parliamentary elections consolidated its control over Sri Lanka – one of the Indian Ocean nations, where India and China are trying to outsmart each other to expand geo-strategic influence.

A press release issued by the Ministry of External Affairs in New Delhi referred to the age-old and multi-dimensional relations between India and Sri Lanka. Modi and Mahinda Rajapaksa stressed on the “significance of early progress in all spheres of bilateral cooperation”.

Keen to counter China’s bid to further spread its tentacles in Sri Lanka, India on Friday extended a $ 400 million currency swap facility to the Indian Ocean island nation to help its economy recover from the Covid-19 crisis. New Delhi is also discussing with President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s government in Colombo a proposal to delay repayment of about $ 840 million debt by Sri Lanka to India.

The Rajapaksa Government of late constituted a committee to review the agreement Sri Lanka inked with India and Japan in May 2019 for the development of the East Container Terminal (ECT) of the Colombo Port. The government headed by Rajapaksa and his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa, who holds the office of Prime Minister, also accepted the demand of the agitating workers to install in the ECT the three gantry cranes, which the Sri Lanka Port Authority had earlier imported from China for the adjacent Jaya Container Terminal.

New Delhi suspects that the Embassy of China in Colombo had orchestrated the stir by the workers so that the Sri Lankan Government could initiate the review of its 2019 tripartite agreement with India and Japan for developing the port. China already holds the majority share in the adjacent Colombo International Container Terminal (CICT).

The tiny island nation had to lease out the Hambantota Port to China for 99 years after its construction by a company based in the communist country resulted in a huge debt burden for it.

The second of Mahinda Rajapaksa's two consecutive terms (2005-2015) in the office of Sri Lankan President had seen China expanding its footprints in the Indian Ocean island nation, causing much unease to India. He had ignored the security interests of India and allowed China to develop strategic assets, like the Hambantota Port, in the island. He had also allowed two nuclear submarines of the People Liberation Army Navy of China to dock at the Colombo Port, raising hackles in New Delhi.