India Today’s Geeta Mohan and Nagarjuna Dwarkanath analyse the significance of PM Modi’s visit to Sri Lanka and why the tour is crucial. PM Modi arrived in Colombo late on Friday. He was welcomed with a ceremonial guard of honour this morning. The Prime Minister is scheduled to hold private talks with Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Disanayaka soon.
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00:00So we're here in Colombo. Prime Minister Narendra Modi is going to be here. There are many aspects that are going to be covered, but this is the first time that Prime Minister Modi visits Sri Lanka after President Narendra Modi visited India.
00:16Amidst all the concerns that India has over China's regime change, if you look at massive welcomes for Prime Minister Modi, there will be the Indian community, the Tamil community as well, who will be here to welcome Prime Minister Modi.
00:32The streets have flags of Indian and Sri Lankan flags that you can see right behind us. There are banners and words that we are all going to be saying to the wives and now-and-todas.
00:46The fact that there is a huge response, the fact that there are concerns in China, if you come and ask Modi, he's not over here with his committee or the deletion of powers for his country.
01:04This Tamil Nadu election is not the one. How do you see it here?
01:09There's also a message that I missed here, Modi, that the Indian Prime Minister would be the first, if need be, to come here, visit the country and have diplomatic talks.
01:19Now there's also messaging about how and when he's going from here. He's visiting Anuradhapura and from there he's flying to Rameshwaram, which is a 20-25 minute walk away, which is a messaging that shows how close the two nations are, not just geographically but also in terms of our culture and civilisation.
01:36And the Tamil outlets.
01:39He's going to the tree where it is believed that the same Buddha tree that was in Bihar, a branch was bought here by King Ashoka's daughter. He goes there and from there he flies to Tamil Nadu, to the Rameshwaram Deva temple.
01:53It's clearly a soft messaging power about how Indians and Sri Lankans are so much in similarity in terms of our culture and especially Tamils. If Tamilians in Sri Lanka are the origin of the southern part of India, the Sinhalese also somewhere have their roots in other parts of India also.
02:10So not just geographically but also culturally we are united. That's the messaging I think in this script the Prime Minister would want to give out.