28 June 2017 09:15 am
A former high political authority recently received an invitation from a friendly South Asian country – to be more specific, our friendly neighbour’s not so friendly neighbour – to deliver a special talk at an event at the country’s defence university.
On hearing about the invitation extended to the former political authority, a certain purohita went into a flutter. He wanted to express the government’s displeasure over this invitation to the guest country’s envoy based in Colombo. However, more mature political authorities advised the purohita to drop the idea saying that it was undiplomatic on their part to intervene in this matter.
Ignoring the sane counsel given to him, the purohita called the foreign envoy and told him that it would be advisable for them to call off the proposed visit by the former strongman because it could be construed as an affront to the powers that be in yahapalanaya.
The diplomat who calmly listened to this unusual request had reportedly replied that the invitation had come from the highest echelons in his country and there was nothing he could do about it.
So the purohita had to accept defeat with egg on his face.