UNP Chairman Vajira Abeywardena made a statement claiming that three presidents of other countries had enquired about the arrest of former President Ranil Wickremesinghe. Pro-Ranil media outlets and Ranil’s social media channels are spreading the news that India has also expressed regret over his arrest. They cite a statement made by Congress Party politician Shashi Tharoor condemning the arrest. In addition to Tharoor, former Norwegian Minister Erik Solheim and former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed also expressed their displeasure.
UNP representatives, together with former Minister G.L. Peiris, met with the Chinese, Indian, and US ambassadors in Sri Lanka and informed them of the threats to democracy posed by Ranil’s arrest.
Despite the claims made by pro-UNP media and social media, sources in the Presidential Secretariat maintain that no foreign leader has spoken to the President by phone about the arrest.
Ranil himself has previously argued that it was inappropriate for a country to criticise actions taken by another government against an opposition leader. This stance dates back to his time as Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs. In 1980, when J.R. Jayewardene’s government decided to deprive Mrs Bandaranaike of her civic rights, the then Indian Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, criticised the move. Below is an extract from J.R.’s biography on this matter:
“Mrs Gandhi’s intervention in this dispute came as a surprise to J.R. and the government. While it was well known that she had a close personal relationship with Mrs Bandaranaike, the general feeling was that this would not stand in the way of a calculatedly cool and diplomatically correct response. When the contents of the report of the Presidential Commission became known in Colombo, Mrs Gandhi telephoned Mrs Bandaranaike and consoled her, a fact to which the SLFP gave publicity. It was then that Anura Bandaranaike announced he would be meeting Mrs Gandhi in New Delhi to discuss the issue. There were raised eyebrows in Colombo at this. J.R. and his cabinet colleagues were astonished when the Indian Prime Minister actually agreed to give him an audience.
This calculated intervention in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs was bad enough, but matters escalated further when, in the aftermath of Mrs Bandaranaike’s expulsion from Parliament, Mrs Gandhi, at a press conference in New Delhi, expressed her distress at the expulsion and the deprivation of civic rights imposed on her. She went on to add that Mrs Bandaranaike’s family was being harassed; she repeated both charges subsequently. J.R. regarded her response as an emotional reaction, reflecting her own experiences at the hands of the Janata government. Almost immediately afterwards, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs, in an obvious attempt to repair the damage to official relations with the Sri Lankan government, explained that Mrs Gandhi was merely expressing her personal views, not those of the Indian government. This clarification came in response to criticism raised in India itself about her remarks. At a time when India’s relations with its South Asian neighbours were strained or indifferent, Mrs Gandhi’s action could only be described as unbelievably short-sighted and ill-considered. By her actions, she jeopardised good relations with the only South Asian country still friendly towards India.
The Sri Lankan government’s official reaction was as formally correct as possible, given the circumstances. It was decided that neither J.R. nor the Prime Minister would respond officially. That task was left to Ranil Wickremesinghe, the youngest member of the Cabinet, who rebutted Mrs Gandhi’s charges and demonstrated how grossly misinformed she was about the alleged harassment of Mrs Bandaranaike’s family. After all, her brother, a judge of the Court of Appeal, had at that time been elevated to President of the Court of Appeal.
The result of Mrs Gandhi’s tactless intervention was that J.R.’s desire for closer relations between Sri Lanka and ASEAN was strengthened, and moves already initiated towards a formal association with that group were accelerated. Within the government, only Foreign Minister A.C.S. Hameed, reflecting the views of the Foreign Ministry, continued to warn that Sri Lanka’s close ties with ASEAN would offend India; but J.R. was increasingly inclined towards formal association with ASEAN.”
The relationship between J.R. and Indira Gandhi was damaged by her statement regarding the revocation of Mrs Bandaranaike’s civic rights, and by the J.R. government’s disregard for that statement. With this experience in mind, India has since been careful not to issue statements on Sri Lanka’s internal politics.
