The Indian External Affairs Ministry says that it will consider and take appropriate action regarding the alleged derogatory article on Prime Minister Narendra Modi and chief minister J Jayalalithaa posted on the Sri Lankan Defence Ministry’s website, should any further action be required.

Facing immense outrage over the article titled “How meaningful are Jayalalithaa’s love letters to Narendra Modi,” Sri Lanka’s Defence Ministry on Friday had tendered unqualified apology to the Indian Prime Minister and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister.

“The moment we heard about this the Government of India has acted with alacrity. We immediately activated diplomatic channels,” Shri Syed Akbaruddin the Official Spokesperson of the Indian external affairs ministry said.

He stated that the matter was taken up by Indian High Commission in Colombo and that they were assured that action would be taken forthwith.

“Subsequently, I can now confirm to you that action has been taken and that objectionable article that you are referring to is no longer on that website,” he told a press briefing on Friday.

Asked whether Jayalalithaa’s letter to Modi, saying that Sri Lanka should apologise, will be taken up with the Sri Lankan authorities, Akbaruddin said: “I am not aware of any such communication but the point is that we acted with alacrity, we have achieved our objective, and should any further action be required, we will certainly consider this and take appropriate action.”

“For the present I can confirm to you that as soon as we took up this matter, we drew immediate results and to our entire satisfaction that offensive article was removed,” he said.

“Now, if there are further things that we need to do, we will certainly consider them.”