The defeated Lankan president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, asked Tamils to vote for a "known devil" in the elections. New Delhi though would have preferred to deal with just about anybody other than Rajapaksa when it came to relations with Sri Lanka and developing geopolitics in the region, not least because of the manner in which the Lankan strongman was threatening to turn his country into a strategic asset for China.
India's anger knew no bounds last year when Sri Lanka allowed Chinese submarines to dock at the Colombo port twice, the second time even after NSA Ajit Doval lodged a strong protest. The government here felt Lanka was using Beijing to needle and humiliate India.
Maithripala Sirisena, the president-elect, is known to be a Sinhala hardliner but he is also expected to be mindful of India's concerns over strategic issues, particularly over any military engagement with Beijing which could hurt India's interests. Sirisena's announcement in his election manifesto that he would maintain equal relations with India and China was seen favourably by New Delhi as it came at a time when Lanka's dalliance with China was increasingly unsettling India.
In fact, at least in the short term, China has more to worry about Sirisena as his likely prime minister and UNP leader Ranil Wickramasinghe had declared recently that ?Sri Lanka would scrap the $ 1.34 billion Colombo port city project financed by the Chinese - apparently because of environmental concerns - if Sirisena came to power. That will be a real setback for China which had a free run in the country until now doling out loans at astronomical interest rates. The port city project was inaugurated by President Xi Jinping himself in September.
In an interaction with this reporter a few years ago, Rajapaksa shrugged his shoulders to say he could do nothing if India was late in accepting opportunities offered by his country or if China had impressed ordinary Lankans by leaving landmarks (in a reference to China-funded mega construction projects). He also said India needed to have a relook at its relations with its neighbours but for Indian authorities, this was no more than a semantic smokescreen meant to cover his propensity to play Beijing against India. In that context, Indian officials repeatedly recalled the July 1987 agreement which called upon the 2 countries to not allow their respective territories for activities prejudicial to each other's unity, integrity and security.
India's list of grievances with Rajapaksa, whose election as president in 2005 coincided with an increase manifold in China's assistance to the country, ran long. Under Rajapaksa, China replaced Japan as Sri Lanka's largest donor. Of the over $ 5 billion assistance given to the country by China since 1971, more than $ 4 billion came between 2005 and 2012. China committed another $ 2.18 billion in the past 2 years, most of these in the form of loans.
While drying up of loans from Western countries because of Sri Lanka's abysmal human rights records was what initially drove the country into China's arms, New Delhi couldn't fathom why Lanka allowed Beijing to create strategic assets in the country and that too with loans with very high rates of interest. The Opposition even questioned the economic viability of Chinese projects like the Hambantota port and Matara international port which have failed to generate enough traffic. The joint opposition in Sri Lanka has also questioned Chinese railway projects saying these were being built in the south at almost 4 times the cost at which India built railway lines. Sirisena and his prime minister can be expected to put under scrutiny the financial terms and conditions under which China is executing such projects.
Rajapaksa's government also received flak for poor execution of some of these projects like the $ 1.35 billion Norochcholai coal power project. The plant has suffered from repeated breakdowns because of poor quality of equipment used and inadequate training to the locals. Officials here have also speculated if there was any merit in "strong rumours" that alleged disproportionate assets acquired by the Rajapaksa clan returned to the island nation through front companies based in South East Asia.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/followceleb.cms?alias=Xi Jinping,South East Asia,Prime Minister,Mahinda Rajapaksa,Ajit Doval
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