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Lanka offers unqualified apology to India over MoD website article
View(s):Sri Lanka on Friday extended an “unqualified apology” to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jeyaram Jayalalithaa after what New Delhi termed was a “derogatory article” published in Sri Lanka’s Defence Ministry website. The move came after India’s High Commissioner Y.K. Sinha lodged a strong protest with External Affairs Ministry Secretary Kshenuka Seneviratne.
This was the outcome of a strong letter the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister had written to Premier Modi, asking that he demand an immediate apology over the article. High Commissioner Sinha said that the Prime Minister’s Office in New Delhi was deeply concerned with the contents.A graphic presentation on the website had Ms. Jayalalitha dreaming about Premier Modi. Clicking on that took readers to an article titled, “How meaningful are Jayalalithaa’s love letters to Narendra Modi?” It had been written by Shenali D. Waduge described as a regular contributor to state-media outlets with close connections to the military establishment.
After High Commissioner Sinha’s protest, the article was promptly removed and a statement headlined “Unqualified Apology” was published. It said: “An article titled “How meaningful are Jayalalithaa’s love letters to Narendra Modi” had appeared in our website along with a graphic portrayal of Hon. Prime Minister of India and Hon. Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. “The article which had been published without appropriate authorisation and not reflecting any official position of the Government of Sri Lanka or the Ministry of Defence and Urban Development has since been removed.
“We extend an unqualified apology to the Hon. Prime Minister and Hon. Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu.” The “unqualified apology” came notwithstanding a caveat below the article which said, “The Ministry of Defence bears no responsibility for the ideas and opinion expressed by the numerous contributors to the “Opinion Page” of this web site.”
Referring to this in her letter, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister said: “More importantly, although there was a disclaimer on the website stating that the Ministry of Defence bears no responsibility for the ideas and opinion expressed by the numerous contributors to the ‘Opinion Page’ of the website, the visual itself depicting the Prime Minister of India and the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu is not part of the article written by a journalist but a visual deliberately and mischievously put up on the official website itself. This reprehensible visual itself clearly indicates that these are not necessarily the views of the author but of the Sri Lankan Government itself.”
She added: “The article itself contained certain unwarranted and unfounded comments about the very valid and serious issues that I have consistently been raising relating to the repeated instances of harassment by the Sri Lankan Navy of Indian fishermen from Tamil Nadu fishing in their traditional waters…”In an e-mail she circulated to selected addressees, Ms. Waduge claimed, “All the Indians that have written to me yesterday. I asked to produce a single line that was derogatory but not a single reply has come quoting any lines in the article you have placed below.
The controversial image that raised a political storm in Chennai
“The MOD had to reply because they put the graphic. The placement or design of the graphic has nothing to do with me.” Ms. Waduge also points out to a cartoon that appeared in the respected Chennai-based The Hindu newspaper that insinuated against President Mahinda Rajapaksa and other SAARC leaders. She said that she thought the whole current episode was “childish”.
On Friday night and yesterday Indian print and electronic media gave wide publicity to the incident. ‘Jeya Demands and Sri Lanka Apologises,’ said a crawler on the NDTV channel which could be viewed in Sri Lanka. In Tamil Nadu, the publication of the article brought together all of Jeyalalithaa’s rivals. They condemned the Government of Sri Lanka. Those who did so included Muthuvel Karunanidhi, the leader of the Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam, Vaiko Gopalaswamy, leader of Marumalartchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhakam (MDMK) and S. Ramdoss, leader of Patali MakkalKatchi (PMK). Crowds protested in the streets of Chennai. They burnt the Sri Lanka’s flag and poster-sized photographs of President Rajapaksa.
A feared diplomatic fallout of the publication of an account which New Delhi says is derogatory is the possible meeting between President Rajapaksa and Premier Modi when they attend the UN General Assembly sessions in New York. Sri Lanka has been engaged in initiatives to have such a meeting. Co-incidentally the apology came as Prof. Sudarshan Seneviratne, Sri Lanka’s new High Commissioner to New Delhi, presented his credentials to President Pranab Mukherji at the Rashtrapati Bhavan on Friday.