India misread our ties with China: Namal Rajapaksa
India misinterpreted the Rajapaksa administration’s relationship with China, but is silent on the current government’s engagement with the rising super power, Sri Lankan parliamentarian Namal Rajapaksa, the eldest son of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, said.
“We always made sure that Sri Lankan soil or waters was not used against any other country. And we maintained that during my father’s time on a strict basis,” he told The Hindu in a recent interview.
Formerly a rugby player, he captained the national team, the 30-year-old parliamentarian has since 2010 represented the southern district of Hambantota.
Considered a stronghold of the Rajapaksas, Hambantota houses a $1.5-million port that the former President built with Chinese loans. “The Hambantota port was initially offered to India, but they did not get back. China came forward,” he said. “We can’t wait… because we have to look at our people’s interests first and our election promises to them.”
Emphasising that their government was “not against India or China, or any other country”, Mr. Rajapaksa said they merely put the country’s interest first. “Whoever was interested in investing, we went and worked with them.” However, “India’s silence” now on the government’s agreements with China, he said, gave credence to “popular belief” among Sri Lankans that the West and India got together to topple his father’s government in January 2015.
Deeming the Hambantota port and a nearby airport, also built during President Rajapaksa’s time, “white elephants”, the current government — led by President Maithripala Sirisena and Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe — decided to sell an 80% stake of the port to a Chinese company to cut the country’s debt burden.
Additionally, the government is also mulling leasing 15,000 acres of land to Chinese companies for an industrial zone that, the government says, would create 1 lakh jobs. The project, according to Mr. Rajapaksa, threatens to displace thousands. “It will have a huge social impact,” he said.
Accusing the government of political vendetta, particularly in regard to corruption cases facing the former First family, he said: “I am not against investigations, but I am just saying do it properly.” The lawmaker was arrested twice last year for alleged money laundering and misappropriation of funds, and is currently on bail.
On the 2012 case of rugby star Wasim Thajudeen’s death, in which the CID recently questioned two higher ranking army officials part of former President Rajapaksa’s security detail, Namal Rajapaksa said the initial medical reports had “clearly stated” it was an accident.
The CID, which took over the case in 2015, told the court it was a murder after Thajudeen’s body was exhumed and re-examined, a charge that Mr. Rajapaksa finds “politically motivated”. Senior ministers in the Sirisena government have linked the former President’s two sons, Namal and Yositha, to the murder case, a charge that Rajapaksa has denied.
(The Hindu)
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I sincerely hope this idiot would disappear from our political horizon.
People who recognise their inborn capabilities,such as social leadership (eg: Mangala Samaraweera), long-term vision (eg: Ranil Wickremasinghe), political strategy (eg: Chandrika Kumaranatunge), immeasurable strength ( eg: Hon Sirimavo B) and an infinite capacity to cheat (eg: JRJ), are usually progressive in life.
I agree with Channa,
This idiot pictured above has no credentials other than being the son of the past Kurakkan Satakaya leader who is going around pretending he is still in the chair while he has been displaced by the voters at a genuinely democratic poll.
In fact he appears to be indulging in ill-gotten wealth and occasionally voicing on behalf of the masses.
A similar fate has befallen the son of a past President, who has turned out to be a sop Minister indulging in grandiose schemes while screwing forward looking businesses providing jobs and opportunities to others.
Even the guy at the helm has a son who demonstrates similar traits occasionally bashing night club guards and glass windows.
The progeny of our leaders are a terrible lot, aren’t they?
could any one tell me who is this pls.
This guy is a joke. Like his father and his brother stupidity is written all over his face.
The father and the brothers of his father are not stupid.
They were immersed in political leadership by their father, the Late DA Rajapaksa, who was a wise political leader devoid of tendency to accumulate wealth as a safeguard for the future of his family.
The father and the father’s brothers provided excellent leadership to our nation from 2005-2009 accomplishing what was not achieved from 1978-2005. Unfortunately, they lost the plot after May 2009 where indulgence in self adulation overcame leadership potential.
Even now, the words of Mahinda and Gota are a breath of fresh air in this era of Yahapalana pretenders.
If Mahinda assumes the throne, we will see a marked change in his approach and in the outcome of his leadership efforts.