Your Sunday Times highlights for this week

Read this week's Sunday Times for your interesting articles including the "5th Column".

Among tomorrow's articles are:

- India and Lanka sign defence MoU built on ‘interlinked security’ 

- No regrets over assaulting Rajiv Gandhi on that fateful morning of 87, says Wijemuni

- Chikungunya danger rises with dengue mosquito
 
- Environment regulator allows unsilenced Australian sand miner’s prep work

- Highest Sri Lankan honor for Modi amidst new MoUs and project launches 

- Beware of online shopping scams targetting the season, warns CAA  

The 5th Column's full text is as follows; 

My dear Narendra Modi,

I thought of writing to you while you are visiting us, enjoying the generous hospitality being dished out to you. People have been quick to call your visit a ‘historic’ one. They say that about anyone who visits from your land but I do think your visit is at least an important one for a variety of reasons.

To begin with, this is not the first time you are visiting us as PM, it is the fourth occasion. That is because you have been in charge of your country for the past decade. Only Nehru and daughter Indira have ruled at a stretch for longer. If you govern for your full five years, you will overtake Indira too.

Still, it has been a long time since we saw you last, which was six years ago. That was when Aiyo Sirisena, who once tried to copy your style of dress and failed miserably, was nearing the end of his term of office. Both Gota maama and Uncle Ranil visited you in Delhi, but you didn’t reciprocate.

Now, if you were looking for excuses, there were many. Much of the initial period of Gota maama’s time was spent under Covid isolation and there was chaos when we emerged from that. As for Uncle Ranil, you didn’t think it was right for you to visit while we were getting ready for the big election.

What you did think was the right thing to do was however to invite Anura sahodaraya to visit India a few months before the big election last year, even though he was merely a MP and the leader of an opposition party at that time. Even Sajith, the Leader of the Opposition, didn’t get such an invite.

Obviously, your agents in Paradise knew better than many of the pundits in Colombo about which way the tide was turning. So, your government invited Anura sahodaraya for a tete-a-tete, even though you did not meet him personally. You couldn’t be seen to be doing that then, could you?

Now the Reds (or is it the Pinks?) and not the Blues or the Greens are in charge here because, major changes do occur in politics. Remember, twenty years ago the US refused you a visa when you were Gujarat’s Chief Minister. Recently, they had to eat their words and roll out the red carpet for you!  

You must have wanted to get to know Anura sahodaraya as quickly as possible because he didn’t have the best credentials as far as you were concerned. After all, his party has close ties with your regional rival China. It also has a long history of opposing India, seeing it as our bullying big brother.

Did you know, Modi that, Anura sahodaraya’s party used to teach ‘five classes’ to their members when they joined- and one of them was on ‘Indian expansionism’? Much later, you may recall they were instrumental in mobilising public opinion against the so-called Indian ‘Peace-Keeping’ Force.

Having met Anura sahodaraya in Delhi a few months ago after he became the boss and having put your arms around his shoulders in a fatherly manner, I don’t think you should be worried about these issues now. In fact, some of his own party men even accuse him of being more Ranil-like than Ranil!

The reality is that Anura sahodaraya needs all the help he can get to resurrect the economy, and he is not getting much anyway. We know you bailed us out during the worst times of the crisis by offering a credit line. That was in contrast to the Chinese who were reluctant to help us renegotiate our debts.

That doesn’t mean the rathu sahodarayas are annoyed with their Chinese friends. Recently, when a Chinese built aircraft crashed, Bimal rushed to say it was not the aircraft’s fault but because the pilot was on ‘L’ plates. The Airforce however said the inquiry was still ongoing. Ah, these ‘L’ plate MPs!

As you can see, Modi, Anura sahodaraya has to perform a delicate balancing act and appear to be dancing to both your tune as well as that of Xi’s. So far, he is not only doing that well, he is also dancing to the old tunes sung by Uncle Ranil. Being a politician yourself, I’m sure you understand.  

As you chat with Anura sahodaraya, there will be some discussions about your friend Adani as well. It will be good if we finally know where we stand on that. At first Uncle Ranil said ‘yes’, then Anura sahodaraya said ‘no’, then Adani said ‘no’ and now we are again saying ‘maybe at the right price’! 

It will also be helpful, Modi, when you talk to Anura sahodaraya and Harini sahodariya if you can tell them that governing is not all about rhetoric and making promises but also about delivering them as you have done. They seem to be quite good at the former but have been quite slow on the latter.

Also, while you are here on a relatively long three-day stay, I hope you don’t take us too seriously. That is because we don’t, ourselves. How can we, when a monkey can disrupt our entire supply and our Police is hunting for their own chief while their deputy minister says he knows where the chap is!

Yours truly,

Punchi Putha

PS- We are told they are getting rid of stray dogs at Anuradhapura because you may be offended by their presence. It is not only stray dogs that you need to be careful about, be watchful about the guards of honour too. You must know what happened to Rajiv. We don’t want history to repeat itself, do we?