During Mangala’s tenure as foreign minister, the 30th anniversary of his political life was celebrated in Colombo. Samantha Power, who later became the USAID head, delivered the keynote address at this function.
During this period, the president of the USA was Donald Trump, and Samantha was in the opposition. Prior to this, during Obama’s government, she held the position of special assistant for human rights in the government. She was a key figure behind the 2015 government change in Sri Lanka, and with the change of government, when Mangala assumed the foreign minister, she built a close relationship with him. This close relationship led Mangala to invite her to his 30th anniversary of political life celebration.
President Maithripala, Prime Minister Ranil and opposition leader Malinda participated in this ceremony. During her address, Samantha Power criticised President Donald Trump while the president and the prime minister listened, seated in the front row. After Samantha’s address, Ranil left the function and sent a word to Mangala through a friend of his, and Mangala stated that Samantha Power criticising the American president in the presence of the Sri Lankan government leaders is unacceptable. Especially when Mangala is present as the foreign minister, making such criticism in his presence does not look favourable as well. Unofficial sources indicate that later Ranil informed the US ambassador that Samantha’s speech had no connection with the Sri Lankan Government.
A similar incident happened in the recent JVP Mayday rally. Kerala and Chinese Communist Party representatives participated in the May Day rally. A Kerala communist party female representative, while addressing the rally, severely criticised Prime Minister Modi and the BJP party. She said Modi is destroying democracy in India and spreading toxic racism in India. The Chinese representative was patiently listening to her speech with a smile. When she mentioned that, as in Sri Lanka, in India, through an ‘aragalaya,’ the government would be toppled, then the JVP cadres clapped and cheered. She levelled this criticism at Prime Minister Modi while President Anura Kumara was on stage.
This is an insult to India. If Modi invited the opposition leaders Sajith, Ranil or Namal from Sri Lanka to a Bharatiya Janata Party meeting and attacked Anura Kumara in front of Modi at that meeting, it would be an insult to Sri Lanka. It is doubtful whether the NPP government understands this bitter truth.
