VZCZCXRO9619
RR RUEHAST RUEHBI RUEHCI RUEHLH RUEHPW
DE RUEHCG #0240/01 1991025
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 171025Z JUL 08
FM AMCONSUL CHENNAI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1750
INFO RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 3189
RUCNCLS/ALL SOUTH AND CENTRAL ASIA COLLECTIVE

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