Jathika Hela Urumaya General Secretary Minister of Power and Energy Patali Champika Ranawaka stated that while Sri Lanka needs to adopt a policy of non-alignment “India cannot tell Sri Lanka what its China policy should be.”

“We all have to accept one thing. China is going to be the next economic super power,” he said in an interview with ‘The Hindu.’

Ranawaka said the “mistrust” under the Rajapaksa government on Sri Lanka's perceived tilt towards China could now be buried and India and Sri Lanka now had a good opportunity to engage as equal partners.

India should see Sri Lanka as a whole and stop focusing just on the island’s Tamil-majority Northern Province, Ranawaka said further.

Ranawaka was positive of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s pragmatic approach to Sri Lanka and said it could enhance trade, technological and political partnerships, paving the way for a “win-win situation” for the neighbouring countries.

“That India is a guarantor of the northern Tamil people’s rights should now be a thing of the past,” he said in an apparent reference to India’s push for devolution of powers in Sri Lanka as per the 13th Amendment, consequent to the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987.

Observing that India’s perspective on Sri Lanka needed to change, he said: “It [Sri Lanka] is not part of India or Indian culture, we have created a unique, organic culture here.” India’s “support” to the LTTE had caused a “big disappointment” in the psyche of the Sinhalese people, but India could change that by engaging through music, cinema, fashion and cricket. “There are various common things other than Hinduism and Buddhism.”

Commenting on major infrastructure projects funded by foreign nations, Ranawaka said Sri Lanka ought to have had technical audits before clearing them, pointing to Sri Lanka’s Northern railway line project that was restored with Indian assistance. “The line constructed by India was four times more than the benchmark costs,” he said, adding that similar infrastructure projects funded by China should have also been subjected to greater scrutiny.

Ranawaka also commented on the ongoing power plant project in the island’s Eastern Province and said the Environment Impact Assessment report was ready and was currently being presented for public opinion.

Sri Lanka and India are also discussing possible collaboration in the areas of power sharing and energy, revisiting the undersea power transmission project. “Both countries have agreed to do a feasibility study,” he said.
(With inputs from The Hindu)