SRI LANKAN PRESIDENT VISITS IMPORTANT SOUTH INDIAN HINDU

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CHENNAI 000240 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PGOV PREL PTER IN CE SUBJECT: SRI LANKAN PRESIDENT VISITS IMPORTANT SOUTH INDIAN HINDU TEMPLE ¶1. (SBU) Summary: On July 11 - 12, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa visited one of South India's most important Hindu temples. Sri Lankan officials said the visit was "personal," except for a hastily thrown together press conference. Embassy contacts said that although President Rajapaksa did not visit New Delhi, several high-level Indian officials did travel to the temple town to meet with him to discuss security arrangements for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's upcoming trip to Sri Lanka. The Buddhist Rajapaksa's visit to the Hindu temple was a reprise of his 2005 visit to an important shrine in Kerala. Some believe the Sri Lankan President wants to quell the lurking public perception in South India -- especially amongst some Tamil Hindus -- that his administration's militaristic approach to the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam is at least partially motivated by Sinhalese Buddhist majority's antipathy to the country's Hindu Tamil minority. End summary. A special devotee from across the Palk Strait -------------- ¶2. (U) On July 11, Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa, accompanied by 10 Sri Lankan officials, took a special Indian Air Force flight from Bangalore to the airport closest to Tirupati, the town in southern Andhra Pradesh which is home to one of India's most important Hindu shrines. Tirupati's temple to Lord Venkateswara is one of the world's most visited and wealthiest places of worship. Often compared to the Vatican, the temple receives more than 50,000 daily visitors, with the number reaching 200,000 on important holidays. ¶3. (SBU) Local government officials greeted President Rajapaksa and his party on their arrival at the airport on the evening of July 11. Under a heavy police presence, President Rajapaksa and his party traveled by road to Tirupati. Sri Lankan Deputy High Commissioner P.M. Amza told post that President Rajapaksa was permitted a "special darshan" (viewing of the temple's deity) at 3:00 a.m. on July 12. (Note: Due to the high volume of visitors at the temple, "special darshans" by VIP visitors like President Rajapaksa are routinely given in the middle of the night to avoid disrupting the normal flow of pilgrims. End note.) Amza emphasized that the President's visit was purely "personal." Rajapaksa: "India-Sri Lanka relations at their best" -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Deputy High Commissioner Amza told post that President Rajapaksa asked at the last minute to call a press conference. According to Indian newspapers, Rajapaksa said "relations between the two countries (India and Sri Lanka),I can say, are at their best." Rajapaksa reportedly said he had great admiration for former Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and considered him to be a great politician. Rajakapsa also told the media that the Government of Sri Lanka was prepared to resume talks with the Tamil Tigers so long as the rebels would lay down their arms and denied that the Sri Lanka Navy was harassing Indian fisherman. ¶5. (SBU) Embassy New Delhi contacts confirmed that President Rajapaksa confined his visit to South India and did not travel to New Delhi. They added that several Indian officials did come from New Delhi to meet with him in Tirupati. One contact guessed that Rajapaksa's meetings with Indian officials centered on security arrangements for Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's upcoming visit to Sri Lanka for the summit of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) summit in late July. Some Indians view Sri Lanka as oppressing Hindus -------------- ¶6. (SBU) At a recent seminar on Sri Lanka hosted by a think tank associated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP),L. Ganesan, President of the Tamil Nadu BJP, commented that the conflict on the island was one between "Buddhist chauvinists" and "Hindu Tamils." Ganesan made his provocative comments with the full knowledge that the Political Counselor from the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission was present at the seminar. Comment: charm offensive to soften Rajapaksa's militant image? -------------- ¶7. (SBU) Notwithstanding comments like Ganesan's, South Indians generally, and Indian Tamils in particular, view the Sri Lankan situation as an internal civil war, without reference to religion. But this was President Rajapaksa's second high-profile visit to a Hindu temple in South India. In 2005, shortly after taking over as President, he prayed at the famous Sri Krishna Temple in Guruvayoor, Kerala. By going to Tirupati, one of Hinduism's most sacred shrines, Rajapaksa has upped the spiritual ante. Although we have no reason to doubt the genuineness of his religious sentiment, there is no doubt that scenes of President Rajapaksa expressing his CHENNAI 00000240 002 OF 002 devotion to Tirupati's Lord Venkateswara can only help send the message that he is not a Buddhist chauvinist trying to wipe out Sri Lanka's largely Hindu Tamil minority. End comment. ¶8. (U) This message was coordinated with Embassies New Delhi and Colombo. HOPPER