Will we get more dollars as Sabry, Moragoda support India in its spat with Canada

The ongoing diplomatic row between Canada and India turned out to be something Sri Lanka could have kept its nose out of.

It is a known fact that the government opposed the shocking announcement by Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau that there was ‘genocide’ committed in Sri Lanka while issuing commemorative statements marking the end of the final phases of the separatist insurgency in Sri Lanka and racially motivated riots against Tamils in 1983. Its diplomats based in Colombo were also summoned to the Foreign Ministry to express the government’s displeasure with the stands taken by the Canadian leader.

But for Foreign Affairs Minister Ali Sabry to wade into the Indo-Canadian spat over the assassination allegedly by the Indian spy agency, RAW, of a Sikh dissident took even his own government by surprise. He criticised Canada and its Prime Minister for levelling baseless allegations in public against India without any evidence. He did not stop there but went on to claim that some terrorists had found a safe haven on Canadian soil as well. There you go.

Synchronised with the Sabry onslaught was some solidarity rhetoric with India by the outgoing Sri Lankan High Commissioner Milinda Moragoda who is scheduled to return home at the conclusion of his term in India.

Addressing a farewell reception organised by the Foreign Correspondents' Club of South Asia in New Delhi earlier this week, the High Commissioner said India's response to the Canadian accusations has been “equitable and also firm and direct". Come on, India, you owe Sri Lanka another billion dollars for all of this support.