Slightly murky waters here. Allegedly, (per General Harkirat) he was asked to carry out action against Prabhakaran and Mahathiah. Agreed that’s the General’s assertion, which takes us to the general tenor of IPKF’s presence in Sri Lanka- Rajiv Gandhi relied heavily on the bureaucracy for both execution and advise – something political leaders usually rely on their cabinet ministers for.

Dixit had an undeniably loud voice (for an ambassador) and viewed himself as the chief negotiator and the civilian leader of the entire Indian presence (his later roles further lend credence to this). This didn’t last very long, but is true for at least the first few months of IPKF’s presence. Corroborated by two family members – one who was posted at the Military Operations Directorate at the time and the other who was a young company commander.