No dictator has a long rope enough and minorities win in Srilanka as Rajpakshe gets out.So Indian interests defended. Palash Biswas

No dictator has a long rope enough and minorities win in Srilanka as Rajpakshe gets out.So Indian interests defended.

Palash Biswas

Photographer: Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images

Supporters of Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on January 8, 2015 in Colombo, Sri Lanka

No dictator has a long rope enough and minorities win in Srilanka as Rajapaksa gets out.So Indian interests defended.Indian Express reports that Rajapaksa's active support to the Chinese proposal on the Maritime Silk Road has magnified New Delhi's concerns about Colombo's embrace of Beijing.IN AN election upset unthinkable even weeks ago, Maithripala Sirisena is to become Sri Lanka's new president. Mahinda Rajapaksa, the incumbent since 2005, conceded defeat even before all the votes were counted.

China in particular has identified Sri Lanka as a key part of its "21st Century Maritime Silk Road," an idea first heralded by president Xi Jinping in late 2013 as new unifier of nations across south and east Asia, a springboard for economic growth, and a signature component to China's growing prominence as a global superpower. Sri Lanka would specifically be a key point between China's eastern ports and the Mediterranean.

Sri Lankan president Mahinda Rajapaksa just conceded defeat to his one-time ally, Maithripala Sirisena, in an upset that will have an impact far beyond the teardrop-shaped island and its 20 million residents.Sri Lanka currently has a limited impact on global affairs, thanks in part to an economy crushed by years of civil war. Nevertheless, it is a key to the flow of future global trade due to its strategic location in the Indian Ocean, which puts it right in the middle of shipping lanes between Asia and Europe.

Thus,the result is very very significant for minorities under constant persecution and subjected to brutal violation of civic and human rights.It is also very very significant for India which had to sacrifice a former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi who sent peace forces in Jafna to settle the puzzled scores of Srilanka and failed miserably.Since then,the India origin Tamils in the island nation could never rest in peace and India lost its control in Tamil diplomacy.It is so significant as highlighted by Business Week:

China has spared no effort to make friends with Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The island nation has more than $4 billion worth of Chinese-backed investments, including a $1.4 billion project now under construction of offices, hotels, apartment buildings, and shopping centers on reclaimed land in Colombo that is the largest foreign investment in the country's history. The leading provider of loans to Sri Lanka, China is also financing a $1.3 coal power plant and $1 billion highway.

For Chinese President Xi Jinping, who visited in September, cozying up to Rajapaksa has been a twofer. Building a Chinese presence in the country helps further Xi's ambitions to build a "maritime Silk Road" expanding China's reach in the Indian Ocean.

At the same time, China's expansion in the Indian Ocean country has provided a useful way to irritate Sri Lanka's big neighbor and China's regional rival: India. China and India have a longstanding border dispute, and China has been eager to take down India a notch by focusing on Sri Lanka and other small countries that have traditionally been in India's sphere of influence. India, for instance, was displeased last year when two Chinese submarines docked at a Chinese-funded portterminal in Colombo.

Business Week writes:

or his part, the Sri Lankan president has been more than happy to cozy up to the Chinese. Criticized by Human Rights Watch and other groups for the government's conduct during the country's civil war against ethnic Tamil separatists, Rajapaksa has counted on support from China, which of course has no patience for foreign do-gooders meddling in such issues as human rights. The Sri Lankan leadership has looked to China in part because of "its fear of being taken to task internationally on the issue of war crimes," Jehan Perera, executive director of the National Peace Council of Sri Lanka, a group that promotes ethnic reconciliation, told Bloomberg Television today. "They saw China as a guarantor that they would not be taken before any UN type of trials."

The guardian reports quite objectively and comments,Maithripala Sirisena ends dynastic rule of Mahinda Rajapaksa, with election described as most significant for decades.

The guardian reports:

Sri Lanka's new president, Maithripala Sirisena, was sworn in on Friday after final results from historic polls made him the clear victor over the incumbent Mahinda Rajapaksa.

The result, which surprised many onlookers, ends a decade of rule that critics said had become increasingly authoritarian and marred by nepotism and corruption.

Analysts described the election as the most significant for decades in the island nation and a last chance for democracy. Many predicted widespread violence before, as well as after, polling. In the event, however, the transfer of power appeared to proceed smoothly.

"With this victory we will implement the 100-day programme in our election manifesto," Sirisena told jubilant crowds in Colombo after his swearing-in. Sirisena had promised to change Sri Lanka's constitution to drastically reduce the power of the president and return the country to a parliamentary system with a prime minister as its leader.

Sirisena also promised that he would not run again for president. He thanked Rajapaksa for conceding defeat but called for future campaigns to be "much more mature" and blasted the state media for its coverage.

"Even though they carried out character assassination and vilified me, I can say I had the maturity to bear it all as a result of my long political experience," he said.

He took the oath of office with senior supreme court Justice Kanagasabapathy Sripavan, bypassing the country's chief justice, who was installed by Rajapaksa in a widely criticised move to expand his authority even more.

Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa lost his bid for a third term on Friday, ending a decade of rule that critics say had become increasingly authoritarian and marred by nepotism and corruption.

Opposition candidate Maithripala Sirisena, a one-time ally of Rajapaksa who defected in November and derailed what the president thought would be an easy win, took 51.3 percent of the votes polled in Thursday's election. Rajapaksa got 47.6 percent, the Election Department said.

Celebratory firecrackers were set off in the capital, Colombo, after Rajapaksa conceded defeat to Sirisena, who has vowed to root out corruption and bring constitutional reforms to weaken the presidency. Sri Lanka's stock market climbed to its highest in nearly four years.

"We expect a life without fear," said Fathima Farhana, a 27-year-old Muslim woman in Colombo. "I voted for him because he said he will create equal opportunities for all," she said of Sirisena, a soft-spoken 63-year-old from the rice-growing hinterlands of the Indian Ocean island state.

Like Rajapaksa, Sirisena is from the majority Sinhala Buddhist community, but he has reached out to ethnic minority Tamils and Muslims and has the support of several small parties.

Sirisena was sworn in at Colombo's Independence Square, where British colonial rulers handed Sri Lanka its independence in 1948, alongside his new prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe.

In an acceptance speech, he was vague on foreign policy, promising to "maintain a close relationship with all countries and organizations."

However, his allies say he will rebalance the country's foreign policy, which tilted heavily toward China in recent years as Rajapaksa fell out with the West over human rights and allegations of war crimes at the end of a drawn-out conflict with Tamil separatists in 2009.

United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon applauded the "peaceful and credible election" and affirmed the world body's support for "development, reconciliation, political dialogue and accountability in Sri Lanka."

Sri Lanka is just off India's southern coast and has historically had mixed ties with its much larger neighbor.

Rajapaksa had cold-shouldered New Delhi in recent years but Sirisena told an Indian newspaper earlier this week that "we will revert to the old, non-aligned policy."

"India is our first, main concern. But we are not against Chinese investment either. We will maintain good relations with China too," he told the Hindustan Times.

Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said Beijing believed the new government would be friendly towards China and support investment projects already agreed.

MOTLEY COALITION

The results showed Rajapaksa remained popular among Sinhala Buddhists, who account for about 70 percent of the country's 21 million people, but Sirisena earned his lead with the support of the ethnic Tamil-dominated former war zone in the north and Muslim-dominated areas.

Rajapaksa won the last election in 2010, surfing a wave of popularity months after the defeat of the Tamil Tiger rebels.

But critics say he had become increasingly authoritarian, with several family members holding powerful positions. Although the economy had blossomed since the end of the war, voters complained of high living costs.

Central bank governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal, a political appointee, told Reuters he had resigned.

Rajapaksa had called this election two years early, confident that the usually fractured opposition would fail to produce a credible candidate.

Sirisena will lead a coalition of ethnic, religious, Marxist and centre-right parties, which analysts say could hamper economic reform and encourage populist policies.

"The opposition's coalition parties have not agreed on a common approach to economic policy and, in our view, were mainly united by the desire to unseat Rajapaksa," Standard and Poor's Ratings Services said in a statement.

"Policy differences are likely to surface."

Sirisena has pledged to abolish the executive presidency that gave Rajapaksa unprecedented power and hold a fresh parliamentary election within 100 days.

He has also promised a crackdown on corruption, with probes into projects such as a $1.5 billion deal with China Communications Construction Co Ltd to build a port city.

It is unclear if the port, to be built on reclaimed land in Colombo, will be canceled.

Sirisena's backers have said a casino license given to Australian gambling tycoon James Packer's Crown Resorts Ltd will be withdrawn.