Pivithuru Hela Urumaya (PHU) leader and senior lawyer Udaya Gammanpila has raised serious concerns over the secrecy surrounding recent Indo-Sri Lanka agreements, questioning the government’s transparency and coherence in handling bilateral matters. Addressing a press conference at the PHU headquarters, Gammanpila disclosed that his party had made a formal request under Sri Lanka’s Right to Information Act to obtain copies of the seven agreements signed between India and Sri Lanka on April 5.
He stated that while the Ministry of Energy had released documents pertaining to the development of oil tankers and the electricity grid interconnection between India and Sri Lanka, and the Ministry of Finance had released information on Eastern Province development projects, the Digital Ministry refused to disclose their agreement, citing that it could not be made public without India’s prior consent.
This position, Gammanpila noted, raises troubling questions: “Are the Digital Economy Ministry and the Energy Ministry dealing with two different Indias? If India truly insists on confidentiality, then surely the oil pipeline and power line agreements which have national security implications for India—would be more sensitive than a digital economy agreement.”
According to him, this inconsistency between ministries suggests a deeper issue: either misinformation is being deliberately spread, or government departments are operating without coordination. He accused the government of resorting to contradictory narratives and challenged it to at least “lie consistently” if it chose to withhold information from the public.
Gammanpila’s comments are likely to amplify public debate about transparency in foreign agreements, especially with a powerful neighbor like India, and whether the Sri Lankan government is being overly compliant with foreign demands at the cost of public accountability.
