{"id":61121,"date":"2018-10-17T19:16:51","date_gmt":"2018-10-17T23:16:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=61121"},"modified":"2018-10-17T19:17:27","modified_gmt":"2018-10-17T23:17:27","slug":"sri-lankan-president-sirisena-telephones-indian-prime-minister-modi-denying-he-had-accused-indian-espionage-agency-raw-of-plotting-to-assassinate-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=61121","title":{"rendered":"Sri Lankan President Sirisena Telephones Indian Prime Minister Modi Denying he had Accused Indian Espionage Agency RAW of Plotting to Assassinate Him."},"content":{"rendered":"

By
\nSuhasini Haidar & Meera Srinivasan <\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n


\nW<\/strong>orried about the fallout of reports emanating from a Cabinet meet, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena telephoned Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday evening to clear the air over the contention that he had blamed India\u2019s intelligence agency R&AW for an alleged assassination plot targeting him.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Sirisena said his words had been misquoted and distorted, and he denied having said that Indian agencies would be involved in the case in any manner,\u201d MEA spokesperson Raveesh Kumar told The Hindu after the telephone conversation, which lasted about 20 minutes.<\/p>\n

\u201cPrime Minister Narendra Modi appreciated his prompt action in clarifying the issue and initiating the call,\u201d Mr. Kumar added, saying that the leaders assured each other of their friendship and the importance of India-Sri Lanka ties.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

The Prime Minister\u2019s Office said in a statement that the Sri Lankan President termed the \u201cmischievous and malafide\u201d reports as \u201cutterly baseless and false\u201d, and seemed intended to create misunderstanding between the two leaders, as well as damage the cordial relations between the neighbours.<\/p>\n

Mr. Sirisena apprised PM Modi of \u201cthe urgent steps\u201d taken by him personally and the Government of Sri Lanka, to publicly reject the reports, it said.<\/p>\n

President Sirisena\u2019s Media Division too released a statement following the call, saying the two leaders held \u201ca very cordial discussion\u201d, in which Mr. Modi assured him of all support for Sri Lanka\u2019s development and prosperity. According to the media release, Mr. Modi \u201cexpressed appreciation\u201d over President Sirisena\u2019s efforts \u201cto maintain close relations with neighbours as well as other countries.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Media leaks\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

According to sources in Colombo and New Delhi, Mr. Sirisena also discussed the problem of the \u201cmedia leaks\u201d from the Cabinet meeting held on Tuesday. The Hindu had reported that Mr. Sirisena had open differences with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe at the meeting, where Mr. Sirisena called for a thorough investigation into the alleged plot \u2014 directed at him and former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa \u2014 linking it to the Indian intelligence agencies.<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Sirisena said that intelligence services in the world have done certain things that their state leader don\u2019t have knowledge of. Even in America, this is the case. We don\u2019t know, but we should have a thorough investigation on this. However, in the same breath he has said that I am quite sure Prime Minister Modi has no knowledge of this. And I don\u2019t think the Indian government will try to encourage this thing. There was no blame for the government,\u201d a senior Presidential aide explained to The Hindu on Wednesday.<\/p>\n

The conflicting versions, the telephone call between leaders, and the flurry of denials from the government of Sri Lanka pointed to the inconsistencies within government, days ahead of Mr. Wickremesinghe\u2019s arrival in New Delhi on Thursday.<\/p>\n

\u201cMr. Sirisena is upset that India has been dragged into the internal politics of Sri Lanka in this manner,\u201d the aide said. Sources in New Delhi and Colombo said the challenges of domestic politics, especially in an election year that the two leaders face, figured in their telephone conversation as well.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, intelligence experts saw the move as deliberately targeting India. Former chief of the RAW Vikram Sood said it seemed more a case of internal politics, designed to upset India. \u201cIn democracies, intelligence agencies do not have an independent foreign policy, and neither do we. In fact, it is more to embarrass GoI ahead of Mr. Wickremesinghe\u2019s visit,\u201d he told The Hindu.<\/p>\n

Mr. Wickremesinghe and Mr. Sirisena are also divided over the issue of handing India the operations of Colombo port terminals.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Suhasini Haidar & Meera Srinivasan Worried about the fallout of reports emanating from a Cabinet meet, Sri Lankan President Maithripala Sirisena telephoned Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday evening to clear the air over the contention that he had blamed India\u2019s intelligence agency R&AW for an alleged assassination plot targeting him. \u201cMr. Sirisena said …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Sri Lankan President Sirisena Telephones Indian Prime Minister Modi Denying he had Accused Indian Espionage Agency RAW of Plotting to Assassinate Him.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61121"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61121"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61122,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61121\/revisions\/61122"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}