Within a month after a Chinese firm won the bids to develop three renewable power projects in three northern islands in Sri Lanka, just 50 km off the Tamil Nadu coast, India has reportedly offered Sri Lanka $12 million grant to develop the power projects.

Earlier, India had also raised objection over granting contracts to the Chinese firm in these islands in Jaffna citing security concern due to the proximity of the sites to the Indian coast. After the ECT shocker, the latest move indicates how India had in fact swiftly moved in to undo the presence of the Chinese firm in its backyard.

Dulles Alahapperuma, the Sri Lankan power minister, said a Cabinet paper on the Indian offer would soon be presented for approval. Receiving a grant, instead of loans, for projects would surely be an advantage to the country, a Colombo-based newspaper quoted the power minister as saying.

Tamil political parties in the north also expressed their reservation against awarding contracts to Chinese firms.

“We are not opposed to China but given that India has known security concerns in this regard, also because the project is to come up very close to Tamil Nadu, we oppose Chinese involvement,” Dharmalingum Sithadthan, an MP from Jaffna, was quoted as saying by The Hindu.

He also said the people of Tamilnadu and Sri Lanka have been extending their unconditional support to the Tamil cause, so their security concern is very important to us.

Meanwhile, the Chinese embassy in Colombo issued a statement, responding to concerns raised by India.

Calling the project purely commercial, the statement said, “the legitimate rights and interests of enterprises, no matter from any country, should be protected, as long as the cooperation is on Sri Lankan territory, abiding by Sri Lankan laws and international rules, and being approved by the Sri Lankan government.” China also said by doing so, the Sri Lankan government can ensure the confidence of foreign investors.

Former Sri Lankan President Bandaranaike Kumaratunga has, meanwhile,  come down hard on the current Sri Lankan administration. “Sri Lanka has now become a Chinese colony,” she was quoted as saying by Newswire. People who have opposed government entities being given to India have now handed over everything to China, she charged.