Modi visit: Twists and turns behind the scenes

It is all too well known that Ports and Shipping Minister Arjuna Ranatunga is a strong opponent of the deal as it stands to hand over the Hambantota Port to a Chinese company.

This is probably why eyebrows were raised when President Maithripala Sirisena who, amidst cabinet ministers and other VIPs, exhorted Mr. Ranatunga to join his entourage to fly to the hill country. They were accompanying Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi who declared open a hospital in Dickoya and later addressed a rally in Norwood near Hatton.

It was last Tuesday that the Cabinet of Ministers discussed the Concession Agreement between the Government and the Chinese company for the Hambantota Port, a legally binding document.

The President made the loud appeal to Mr. Ranatunga to join him just after the UN backed international conference on Vesak ended at the Bandaranaike Memorial International Conference Hall (BMICH).

Political parties representing those in the central hills had collected large sums of money for the Modi event from Tamil businessmen in Colombo. Yet, they failed to hire a compere for the Modi rally.

That work was carried out by Minister Mano Ganeshan. In addition to making a speech himself, he kept announcing who the other speakers would be. That included both President Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

Both Mr. Ganeshan and former Minister Arumugam Thondaman were on the same stage. Mr. Thondaman, now no longer the Lord and Master of the plantations, was seated in the second row while Mr. Ganeshan and Minister P. Digambaram were in the front row.

A request by Vinayagamoorthy Muralathiran alias Karuna, the former LTTE deputy turned SLFP vice president turned his own party leader, for a meeting with Premier Modi did not materialise.

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