• No response from Cab. Spokesperson on why MoUs not presented to P’ment  

The Government declined to provide details about the Memorandums of Understanding (MoUs) signed between Sri Lanka and India during the visit of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, calling on journalists and the public to obtain information through Right to Information (RTI) requests instead.

These remarks were made by Cabinet Spokesperson Minister Dr. Nalinda Jayatissa, at the weekly Cabinet media briefing yesterday (8) in response to questions raised by the media regarding the publication of the contents of the MoUs signed between the two States. However, he avoids answering questions as to why the MoUs have not been presented in the Parliament. 

He also rejected allegations made by certain parties that the MoUs signed by the Government are not accessible even to government authorities. He stated that the MoUs were presented to the Cabinet of Ministers and the Attorney General (AG) for clearance. 

“We made certain changes to the MoUs as required. They were presented to the Cabinet. We reviewed and amended some of them. These were submitted to the AG’s Department as well. In particular, the Defence Cooperation MoU was signed for the defence cooperation of the two countries. It was discussed with the Defence authorities. No one should be afraid of these MoUs,” he said.

He further said that information on these MoUs can be requested through RTI applications. However, the media questioned as to why the MoUs have not been tabled in the Parliament. In response, he said: “We will tell you about our decision on that.”

Meanwhile, the main Parliamentary Opposition, the Samagi Jana Balawegaya’s (SJB) Parliamentarian Mano Ganesan also urged the Government to table the MoUs signed with the Indian Government. 

“Minister (addressing Foreign Affairs Minister Vijitha Herath), please table all the agreements that the Government signed with India in the Parliament so that the whole country knows about them. You said that they are not agreements but MoUs. Fine, table them. By doing so, you can win the confidence of the entire country. You also said that some parties in the Opposition are accusing you of betraying the country by making agreements with India. We never said that. It is your Party that accused us of betraying the country when we tried to make similar agreements with India in the past,” he said.

In response to Ganesan, Herath said that he would respond to the House after discussing the matter with the relevant ministries.