India has rubbished the reports
that the Colombo station chief of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) was expelled during the run-up to the
recently concluded presidential election in Sri Lanka, and has said that the personnel
was taken back after he has completed his tenure of three years.
Reports coming from the island
nation were alleging that the Sri Lankan Government had asked the Indian authorities
to recall the official as he was helping the opposition candidate Maithripala
Sirisena garner support various political quarters in order to win the
elections; Mr Sirisena eventually won the presidential election.
"The normal tenure of an
Indian diplomat in Sri Lanka is three years and all officials who have been
transferred during last year have completed that. It is a normal transfer. Do not
read anything into it unless somebody stands up and says 'yes'. Using unnamed
sources is just hiding behind and obscuring the truth," Spokesman of the
External Affairs Ministry Syed Akbaruddin said in New Delhi.
He further added, "If
somebody has proof otherwise, I would stand ready to contest that. Otherwise
take my view as the last word on that."
Sirisena defeated Mahinda
Rajapaksa in the closest-ever presidential election on 8 January, hence ending
the 10-year rule of the civil war hero Rajapaksa.
Right after he came into power,
Sirisena said that the relation with India is Sri Lanka's top priority, and New
Delhi will be the first place he will be travelling as the head of the nation.
These reports of the RAW
official's expulsion are coming at time when the foreign minister of Sir Lanka
Mangala Samaraweera is in New Delhi and taking part in top-level meetings
with his Indian counterpart Sushma Swaraj.
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