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Indian spy's role alleged in Sri Lankan president's election defeat

India's top envoy in Colombo, High Commissioner Y.K. Sinha, presented Sirisena with a large bouquet of flowers just hours after the results were announced on Jan 9. China's ambassador was only able to meet the new president six days later.

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yeap we make right choice , you said it right lol

What is 'lol'? :angry: Sheikh Hasina is an elected PM of Bangladesh as per the peoples' choice, and she is doing great, at least far better than how Begam Khaleda Zia performed.

Do you disagree?

India's top envoy in Colombo, High Commissioner Y.K. Sinha, presented Sirisena with a large bouquet of flowers just hours after the results were announced on Jan 9. China's ambassador was only able to meet the new president six days later.

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That doesn't make him James Bond! :P
 
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BDs and pakistanis jumping again...
if you people are so eager to jump... jump in your arabian sea and bay of Bengal.... not in gulf of mannar... :pop:
 
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Indian spy's role alleged in Sri Lankan president's election defeat

Sri Lanka expelled the Colombo station chief of India's spy agency in the run-up to this month's presidential election, political and intelligence sources said, accusing him of helping the opposition oust President Mahinda Rajapaksa.

An Indian foreign ministry spokesman denied any expulsion and said that transfers were routine decisions. Rajapaksa, voted out of office in the Jan 8 election, told Reuters he did not know all the facts while the new government in Colombo has said it is aware of the reports but cannot confirm them.

But several sources in both Colombo and New Delhi said India was asked to recall the agent in December for helping gather support for joint opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena after persuading him to ditch Rajapaksa's cabinet.

A sketchy report in Sri Lanka's Sunday Times newspaper on December 28 said that "links with the common opposition" had cost India's Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) station chief his job in Colombo.

India has often been involved in the internal politics of the small island nation off its southern coast - it sent troops there in 1987 in a botched effort to broker peace between the government and Tamil Tiger rebels.

Rajapaksa's unexpected defeat after two terms in office coincided with growing concern inIndia that it was losing influence in Sri 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.

Sirisena, the new president, has said he will visit New Delhi on his first foreign trip next month and has said India is the "first, main concern" of his foreign policy.

An Indian official said the RAW agent was recalled after complaints that he had worked with Sri Lanka's usually fractious opposition parties to agree on a joint contender for the election. Then, he was accused of facilitating meetings to encourage several lawmakers, among them Sirisena, to defect from Rajapaksa's party, the official said.

The agent was accused of playing a role in convincing the main leader of the opposition and former prime minister Ranil Wickremasinghe not to contest against Rajapaksa in the election and stand aside for someone who could be sure of winning, said the officer and a Sri Lankan lawmaker who also maintains close contacts with India.

The agent 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.

"They actively were involved, talking to Ranil, getting those things organised, talking to Chandrika," the lawmaker told Reuters.


"CERTAIN THINGS YOU DON'T TALK ABOUT"

Wickremasinghe, who is now prime minister again in Sirisena's government, met "two or three times" with the man identified as the agent in the months before the vote, as well as with the Indian high commissioner, or ambassador, the prime minister's spokesman said.

"They discussed the current political situation," Wickremasinghe's spokesman said, but he denied that the Indians had advised him. "He does not know if he advised other politicians."It was not clear if Wickremasinghe was aware at the time that he was meeting with an intelligence official. India's RAW officers are usually given diplomatic posts when assigned to foreign missions.

Former president Kumaratunga did not respond to requests for comment.

Rajapaksa declined to confirm the involvement of India in the campaign against him.

"I don't know, I won't suspect anybody until I get my real facts," he said at his party headquarters.

"There are certain things you don't talk about," a close associate of the Rajapaksa family said, but added that "there were clear signs of a deep campaign by foreign elements."

Sri Lanka's then defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa - a brother of the former president - complained about the agent's activities to Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval in November when Doval was visiting the island nation for a defence seminar, the Indian official said.

Another Indian official, who monitors the region for security threats, said New Delhi had been watching Beijing's growing influence and heavy investments in Sri Lanka under Rajapaksa, who visited China seven times since becoming president in 2005.

But India was stunned and angry last year when the Chinese submarines docked in Sri Lanka on two separate occasions, a step New Delhi saw as part of Beijing's "string of pearls" strategy to secure a foothold in South Asia and maritime access through the Indian Ocean.

"The turning point in the relationship was the submarines. There was real anger," the Indian security official said.

Indian military officials said that New Delhi reminded Sri Lanka it was obliged to inform its neighbours about such port calls under a maritime pact, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi raised the issue with Rajapaksa at a meeting in New York.

In a possible sign of shifting allegiances, India's top envoy in Colombo, High Commissioner Y.K. Sinha, presented Sirisena with a large bouquet of flowers just hours after the results were announced on Jan 9. China's ambassador was only able to meet the new president six days later.

Insight - Indian spy's role alleged in Sri Lankan president's election defeat| Reuters
Indian overt and covert activities need to be investigated and exposed promptly. That is why India has bad relations with majority of its neighbors.
 
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Indian overt and covert activities need to be investigated and exposed promptly. That is why India has bad relations with majority of its neighbors.
btw ! India only got problem with pakistan !
 
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I just wonder how the agent convinced rajapaksha to call for an interim election and convinced the sri lankan voters to vote for his opposition too....hmmmm.

Exactly.. Wonder if it was the same RAW agent that got Rajapaksa to call for elections two years ahead of schedule ?? The plot thickens.. :lol:

I see similarities between bitter Rajapaksa loyalists and LTTE loyalists right after their respective defeats.. Both cannot come to terms with it, Both cry foul at everybody else, Both felt the entire world conspired against them including India and the US, Both claim irrespective of the majority of the country rejecting them they some how still have the support of "thier" people, Thus promoting ethnic divisions.. Eerie
 
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Maybe RAW had something to do with it but not to the extent portrayed in the article.
 
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Srilanka needs to be careful here....China and Pakistan has her in the times of need while india has always endorsed its imperial opinions on Srilanka...the greatest example is the last year or a year before's Tamil human rights drama in the aftermath of war with LTTE and we all know whose Tamil diaspora played the key role in it that had gone all in vein.:lol:

relationships with Pakistan and China are steadfast and will not change.. But the new govt will also follow a more prudent foreign policy.. Despite the Rajapaksa regime brain washing their supporters.. Sri Lanka needs to have a non aligned policy.. Anything other would not be in thier best interests.. It's not a global powerhouse to play global power politics.. It need to get the best for it's citizens and their interests while being vigilant about others.. Be it India or the US
 
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Maybe RAW had something to do with it but not to the extent portrayed in the article.

Yaar, India and Sri lanka share diplomatic relations - we don't require "RAW" to get involved when we have a good number of diplomatic Corp there if there needs to be any support given to anyone.
 
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Yaar, India and Sri lanka share diplomatic relations - we don't require "RAW" to get involved when we have a good number of diplomatic Corp there if there needs to be any support given to anyone.

RAW is there all over the place, especially in our neighboring nations. Its pretty normal. Though Rajapakshe made a bad call for interim elections.

"Bdians ki tarah Srilankan ko bi pagal karvane ka koshish kar raha hu, bas chup chap mera side lai"
 
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India's top envoy in Colombo, High Commissioner Y.K. Sinha, presented Sirisena with a large bouquet of flowers just hours after the results were announced on Jan 9. China's ambassador was only able to meet the new president six days later.

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The clinching proof.

The dumassedness of this thread makes it worthy of a place in BD defence section.
 
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RAW is there all over the place, especially in our neighboring nations. Its pretty normal. Rajapakshe made a bad call for interim elections.

Rajapaksa made the call simply because he was obsessed with power and was determined to rule the country making it a kleptocracy till his death.. He changed the constitution of the country arbitrarily for this

And as a kleptomaniac that he became he became irrational as well, Placing his political moves in soothsayers and horoscopes.. Maybe this man is the head of RAW in Sri Lanka.. :lol:

Not all of Nostradamus’ predictions came true - Sumanadasa Abeygunawardena

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Not all of Nostradamus’ predictions came true - Sumanadasa Abeygunawardena
14 January 2015


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As a defeated Mahinda Rajapaksa slunk out of Sri Lanka’s presidential palace, the astrologer who counselled him to call a disastrous early election was gloomily packing his bags on the other side of town.

“Not all of Nostradamus’ predictions have come true either,” said Sumanadasa Abeygunawardena as he reflected both on the fate of his vanquished boss and his own reputation as a seer.

“There was only so much I could do to help him win, maybe 5%. But you must have luck to be the president.”

The 63-year-old Abeygunawardena has been avoiding the media since last Thursday’s election, his reputation having taken a pounding from veteran leader Rajapaksa’s defeat to his rival Maithripala Sirisena.

During his increasingly authoritarian rule, the president became hugely reliant on his astrologer’s counsel and even timed the announcement of the snap election after consulting Abeygunawardena.

On voting day, Rajapakse appeared oblivious to his impending demise by declaring he was headed for “a resounding victory”.

While the outcome spelt the end of Rajapaksa’s decade in power, it was also a disaster for Abeygunawardena who had been lavishly rewarded by the man he calls “Our Sir” after advising him for 32 years.

In an interview with AFP, the normally ebullient Abeygunawardena admitted he was trying to keep a low profile for the moment, while confident that the setback would not lead all his followers to desert him.

“I am avoiding talking to people, especially the media, but I have a big following and they will not abandon me,” he said in a phone interview from his home in the coastal city of Galle.

Abeygunawardena said he had tried to console Rajapaksa after the outcome became clear in the early hours of Friday, before his old boss made his pre-dawn departure from his official residence in Colombo.

As Rajapakse made his exit, Abeygunawardena had to hand in the keys to a grace-and-favour bungalow in another part of the city. He also lost his limousine, chauffeur and vacated his seat on the board of a state-run bank.

Back in Galle, Abeygunawardena tried to put a brave face on his demise, insisting that he always knew Rajapaksa was doomed to lose – but didn’t have the heart to tell him.

“If I did not tell him he was going to win, he would have been psychologically shattered. His defeat would have been much worse,” he said, saying the outcome had been written in the stars.

“In this case, the opponent’s horoscope is more powerful than that of Our Sir.”

Such foreboding was not in evidence at 1:04pm on November 20 when Rajapaksa signed the decree for an election after Abeygunawardena had advised that it was a particularly auspicious moment.

The election did not have to be held for another two years although conventional wisdom at the time was that Rajapaksa was likely to cruise to victory over a divided opposition.

But Rajapakse was blindsided by his then health minister Sirisena’s sudden defection to the ranks of the combined opposition, only hours after the two men dined together.

Abeygunawardena became tearful when pressed on the outcome, saying he carried out traditional rituals to ensure Rajapaksa voted at the right time while looking towards the chosen direction to ensure victory.

Even though he claims to also be a friend of Sirisena, Abeygunawardena admitted that he had not seen the defection coming.

If Abeygunawardena did indeed foresee Rajapaksa’s defeat, his reluctance to break the bad news might have stemmed from the fate of one of his colleagues who was arrested and thrown in jail in 2009 after publicly predicting that the president would lose the following year’s election.

Abeygunawardena is swift to claim credit for predicting Rajapaksa’s victories in both the 2005 and 2010 elections but says no astrologer can ever be 100% right, even the 16th century French seer Nostradamus.

“It is just not possible, otherwise I could just pay the 75,000 rupees ($570) deposit to run for president as an independent and go on to win the presidency,” he said. “You have to give us at least a 5% margin of error.”

And Abeygunawardena denied simply telling Rajapaksa what he wanted to hear, claiming that he had warned him not to accept the chair in office of the 53-member Commonwealth whose summit he hosted in Colombo in 2013.

The last chairman before Rajapaksa was Julia Gillard who was unseated as Australia’s premier after hosting the same event in 2011.

“That office is a crown with thorns. I told him not to take it,” Abeygunawardena said. “See what happened to Gillard? The same thing happened to Our Sir.”
 
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