Had Rajapaksa won, many of us would have been killed: Chandrika Kumaratunga

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“There is a lot of hope in northern and eastern Sri Lanka. It’s a very big responsibility and a golden opportunity,” she said.

She also talked about the time before the presidential elections in January, that saw Rajapaksa being voted out of power. Aware that Rajapaksa was snooping on them, Kumaratunga said, she used the Viber app to communicate with Maithripala Sirisena, who eventually won the presidential polls.

“The Sri Lankan government did not know how to tap phone calls being made through Viber,” said Kumaratunga, in New Delhi to attend a conference on Buddhism, where she also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

Kumaratunga, who was instrumental in bringing Sirisena and newly elected Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe together, stitching the opposition alliance which now occupies both the top posts in the country, denied India had played a role in this. “We are old enough to do it ourselves,” she said.

In 2005, Kumaratunga had given up the reins of her party, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, to Rajapaksa, after serving as president for 11 years, and retired from political life.

Explaining why she came back, she said that about two years after the Rajapaksa government took charge, “civil society started asking me to return to politics”. She said she hoped that after 2010, when Rajapaksa won both the presidential and parliamentary elections, things would improve, but they didn’t.

However, Rajapaksa put up hurdles all the way, Kumaratunga added, “preventing political leaders from meeting me or talking to me”. “People who met me for two seconds at a public meeting were hauled up.”

Talking about how she chose Sirisena, she said, “I had to get someone who was not known to be corrupt or a murderer… It is very difficult to find someone at the leadership level in Sri Lanka.”

Kumaratunga later approached Wickremesinghe of the rival United National Party (UNP). “Maithripala and Ranil are from different social and educational backgrounds… but we had a common project,” she said.

About her meeting with Modi, she said, “We just had a friendly discussion.” However, she added that that India could play a “dynamic role” to assist Sri Lanka. “India has a crucial role because of strategic and geographic reasons. We can’t wish away India, whether we like it or not,” Kumaratunga said, noting that international powers consult India on Sri Lankan issues. “India can help us strategically, financially, send more tourists to us.”