Power and Energy minister Champali Ranawaka called on India to see Sri Lanka as one unit and not focus on just the island's Tamils, in an interview with The Hindu.
“That India is a guarantor of the northern Tamil people’s rights should now be a thing of the past,” the leader of the Sinhala nationalist JHU said in an apparent reference to India’s push for devolution of powers in Sri Lanka under the 13th Amendment.
“The Sri Lankan Tamils have to cooperate with the existing government to settle their problems without dragging India in,” the minister further said.
“It [Sri Lanka] is not part of India or Indian culture, we have created a unique, organic culture here,” he said, adding that India’s “support” to the LTTE had caused a “big disappointment” to the Sinhalese people, but India could change that by engaging through culture. “There are various common things other than Hinduism and Buddhism.”
Speaking on the country's rtealtionship with China, the minister said,
“We all have to accept that China is going to be the next economic super power. India cannot tell Sri Lanka what its China policy should be. Unfortunately Sri Lanka was a bit trapped between the undeclared cold war between US and China.”
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