President acting under influence of Basil R, sacked ministers allege

• Dissident ruling party MPs lambaste Finance Minister and accuse him of deliberately running economy to the ground
• Allege he is a contract man of America paving way for foreign intervention in country
• Says Basil prompted their sacking by saying he would not attend cabinet meetings in their presence
• Parties to decide joint form of action in coming days

By Chandani Kirinde

Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa came in for strong criticism from dissidents within the ruling party who accused him of deliberately running the country’s economy to the ground so as to allow American intervention.

Sacked ministers Wimal Weerawansa, Udaya Gammanpila and Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara joined ranks to berate Rajapaksa for running the Sri Lanka Podujana peramuna (SLPP) as his private property and using that to influence the President’s decision making.

“Basil Rajapaksa has only one contract. The Americans can take him into custody on money laundering charges at any time and to stop that from happening he has to work for the Americans. He is deliberately allowing the economic crisis to deepen so as to create a situation which leaves the door open for American intervention,” Weerawansa told journalists.

The dissenting MPs also revealed the long running conflicts the members of the constituent parties within the SLPP have had with Basil Rajapaksa starting from 2019 when the latter was keen to be the presidential candidate.

“He had laid the groundwork by making the SLPP his personal property and wanted to become the candidate but we as a group that worked to bring back Mahinda Rajapaksa after the 2015 electoral defeat felt the best candidate was Gotabaya Rajapaksa. His dreams were shattered because of this,” Weerawansa said.

He said the group had strongly opposed the clause in the 20th Amendment to the constitution to allow dual citizens to enter Parliament but had been assured by the President that unsuitable persons would not be appointed to parliament but he had gone back on his word and appointed Basil Rajapaksa.” 

“We are facing an unprecedented economic crisis but instead of taking it seriously, the Finance Minister is dilly dallying which is why we had to take a strong stance on this issue and come up with a plan to overcome this situation,” he said.

Weerawansa also revealed that he and Gammanpila were removed by the President after Basil Rajapaska had said he would not attend Cabinet meetings if they were going to be there. “As always, the President sided with his family member and took the decision. The President is heavily influenced by Basil Rajapaksa,” he said. MP Udaya Gammanpila said they had spoken according to their conscience and would continue to do so in keeping with the mandate given to them by the people.

 “When the economics of the country is under the control of a person with zero economic sense, day by day the country is falling deeper into a crisis and it is about this we have spoken out. We have done so from the first day we were in the Cabinet. It is because of the failure to get on the right track that we had to come up with an alternative solution,” Gammanpila said.