Indian union finance minister scheduled to visit Colombo Saturday

Indian union Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee is scheduled to visit Colombo on Saturday at a time when Sri Lanka’s former Army General Sarath Fonseka has accused Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa of seeking Indian help during October fearing a military coup by him.
Indian cabinet minister’s visit to the neighbouring island country also comes in the wake of requests by the Sri Lankan regime for more financial aid to rehabilitate the war-hit Tamils in the North of Lanka.
Mr Pranab Mukherjee visited Colombo in January as External Affairs Minister of India when the Sri Lankan Army went into Vanni jungles in hot pursuit of the LTTE. His then visit was depicted by Tamil Nadu chief minister M. Karunanidhi as an “attempt by the Indian regime to bring about a ceasefire.”
Later, it turned out that Mr Pranab Mukherjee did not broach the idea of ‘ceasefire’ during the discussions and such a theory was floated by Tamil Nadu chief minister for ‘public consumption.’
Mr Mukherjee’s Saturday visit to Colombo came in the backdrop of former SLA chief Sarath Fonseka’s outburst against Mr Mahinda Rajapaksa. Mr Fonseka told the media that Mr Rajapaksa feared a coup by Sri Lankan Army in October and asked for India’s help – urging it to put its Army on alert if intervention was required.
Elections are due in April 2010 in the island country and Mr Fonseka is likely to run for the Presidential post against Mr Rajapaksa. Sri Lanka’s prominent Opposition leader and UNP chief Ranil Wickramasinghe was in Delhi last week, meeting Indian union External Affairs minister S.M. Krishna and leaders of almost all the important political parties in India.