India denies helping Gotabaya Rajapaksa flying out, keen to preserve goodwill its aid generated in Sri Lanka

India has denied facilitating Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s departure from his country in a military aircraft ahead of his imminent resignation.

New Delhi is keen to make sure that it is not anyway seen as supportive to the “Rajapaksa Clan”, which is being blamed by a large number of Sri Lankans for the economic crisis that the tiny nation has plunged into early this year.

India will continue to stand with people of Sri Lanka, New Delhi’s diplomatic mission in Colombo stated even as it was confirmed that Rajapaksa, his wife and two security officials had left Colombo aboard a military aircraft and landed in an airport in neighbouring Indian Ocean nation, Maldives, early on Wednesday. The Sri Lankan Air Force confirmed that it had provided the aircraft to fly the President and his entourage to Maldives on a request from the government of the country and in accordance with the constitution.

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The High Commission of India in Colombo denied playing any role in the departure of the Sri Lankan president or his brother and former Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa from the country. “High Commission categorically denies baseless and speculative media reports that India facilitated the recent reported travel of @gotabayar (Gotabaya Rajapaksa) @Realbrajapaksa (Basil Rajapaksa) out of Sri Lanka,” it tweeted as the news broke out early in the morning about the island nation’s president’s departure from the country.

Gotabaya agreed to step down after thousands of Sri Lankans stormed into the presidential palace in Colombo on Saturday, demanding his resignation for the failure of the government to mitigate the economic crisis that the tiny nation of about 2.21 crore people plunged into early this year. The protesters also set ablaze the residence of Ranil Wickremesinghe, who had taken over as the Prime Minister after Gotabaya’s brother Mahinda Rajapaksa had resigned on May 9 this year, amid growing protest against the government.

Not only Gotabaya and Mahinda, but also their other brothers, Basil and Chamal Rajapaksa, had held the offices of finance and irrigation ministers respectively, but had resigned earlier this year amid simmering public anger against the clan this year. Mahinda’s son Namal Rajapaksa had also resigned from the office of the sports minister of Sri Lanka as the family had been blamed for the economic crisis in the country.

India has so far provided assistance worth over $3.8 billion this year to help cash-strapped Sri Lanka and sent consignments of food, fuel, medicines, fertilizers and other essentials under credit lines extended to the neighbouring nations.

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Ever since Gotabaya and Mahinda had taken over as president and prime minister of Sri Lanka in 2018 and 2019, the island nation had been drifting towards China’s orbit of influence causing security concerns for India.

New Delhi, however, had reached out to the Rajapaksa Clan in its bid to claw back the strategic space Xi Jinping’s “Middle Kingdom” had wrested from it in the Indian Ocean nation.

But, with public anger against the “first family” of Sri Lanka growing over the past few months, New Delhi has been distancing itself from the clan, apparently in order to make sure that the goodwill generated by its aid to the cash-strapped nation is not squandered away.

“India will continue to support the people of Sri Lanka as they seek to realize their aspirations for prosperity and progress through democratic means and values, established democratic institutions and constitutional framework,” New Delhi’s diplomatic mission in Colombo tweeted on Wednesday.

India earlier this week also dismissed speculation in social media and a section of media in Sri Lanka about it planning to send its troops to deal with the political unrest in the neighbouring country.