India reaches out to GenNext of Rajapaksa Clan, Buddhist monks of Sri Lanka

The Centre played host to a delegation of Sri Lankan Buddhist monks, who arrived on the first flight that landed at the Kushinagar International Airport

India on Wednesday reached out to GenNext of the first family of Sri Lanka and sought to consolidate its connection with the predominant Sinhala-Buddhist nationalism in order to claw back the space it lost to China in the Indian Ocean island nation.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government played host to a delegation of Sri Lankan Buddhist monks, who arrived on the first flight that landed at the Kushinagar International Airport in Uttar Pradesh. Modi inaugurated the airport and took part in the rituals marking Abhidhamma Day at the Mahaparinirvana Temple in Kushinagar – the final resting place of Lord Buddha. He also had a meeting with Namal Rajapaksa, nephew of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and son of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, who led the delegation from the island nation.

“The greatest gift Sri Lanka received from India is Buddhism! We have always shared a close relationship between our nations & our people! It is the vision of HE President @GotabayaR & HE PM @narendramodi to strengthen this bond between our nations & (and) our people,” tweeted Namal. “India-Sri Lanka ties are getting stronger and stronger across different sectors. This augurs well for the people of our nations,” Modi replied to Namal on Twitter, adding that he was happy to meet the neighbouring nation’s young leader in Kushinagar.

Namal is seen as the next generation leader of the Rajapaksa Clan, which returned to power in Colombo in November 2019 riding on a Sinhala-Buddhist nationalist wave that swept Sri Lanka after a series of blasts killed over 260 people across the island. The government led by Gotabaya and his brother Mahinda Rajapaksa since then allowed Beijing to expand its influence in the Indian Ocean nation, causing unease in New Delhi.

The BJP government in New Delhi is now trying to reach out to the powerful Sri Lankan Buddhist monks, who have been opposing New Delhi’s traditional support to the clamour for more political power for the island’s minority Tamils. Modi conveyed to Mahinda Rajapaksa during a virtual summit in September 2020 that New Delhi would provide a grant assistance of $ 15 million to develop Buddhist ties between India and Sri Lanka.

Namal on Wednesday handed over the first copy of the English, Sinhala and Tamil translations of the Bhagwad Gita to Modi. “The translation of the sacred text was commissioned by HE @PresRajapaksa as a symbol of our people to people friendship & (and) our cultural similarities,” he tweeted. “This is a great initiative undertaken by my friend, @PresRajapaksa. The teachings of Lord Buddha unite our nations and make our planet better.”

Not only with Sri Lanka, the Modi Government used the inauguration of the international airport in Kushinagar to reach out to other nations with significant population of Buddhists, inviting diplomats from Myanmar, Vietnam, Cambodia, Thailand, Lao PDR, Bhutan, South Korea, Mongolia, Japan, Singapore and Nepal.

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