CBK ran one of the most repressive governments: Rajapaksa

Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa yesterday accused fellow SLFP Patron Chandrika Kumaratunga of running one of the most “repressive” governments in living memory and charged that her recent comments amount to an admission that she too presided over a party full of “murderers and rogues”.

In an interview with The Hindu during her visit to India, Kumaratunga had accused Rajapaksa of running a police state during his tenure as the President of Sri Lanka.

She had also claimed that if he was successful in returning to power as Prime Minister in the recent parliamentary polls the country would have experienced “massive killings” of innocents.

Issuing a scathing response to Kumaratunga, Rajapaksa said it was with much regret that he read certain comments made by the former president to The Hindu newspaper in India a few days ago. 

 “Mrs. Kumaratunga is a former leader of the SLFP and a current member of the Central Committee and co-Patron of our party and whatever she tells the foreign media while on overseas trips, reflects on our party and our country.”

 “Throughout the interview with The Hindu, Mrs. Kumaratunga expressed her elation and glee at being able to defeat the SLFP-led UPFA Government of which I was the president and she dwelt garrulously on her own role in the conspiracy,” he said in a statement.

Rajapaksa said that no Indian would ever see a former leader (or a Central Committee member or Patron) of the Congress Party or the BJP expressing joy at the defeat of his or her own political party in that manner.

 “While that alone would be cause for much shame and embarrassment for all members of the SLFP and the UPFA, some of the things that she said about our party are positively insulting,” he said.

The Kurunegala District MP said that when the co-Patron and a sitting Central Committee member of the SLFP tells the foreign media that members of her own party are virtually all rogues or murderers, that reflects very badly on the party.

 “I took over the party that she left behind. So her statement to The Hindu amounts to an admission that she too presided over a party full of murderers and rogues.”

He said that it is incongruous for Mrs. Kumaratunga to be talking of a police state because “she ran one of the most repressive governments in living memory”.

The UPFA MP urged Kumaratunga not to allow her personal hatred for him blind her to the fact that she is a former leader of the party and co-Patron and sitting Central Committee of the SLFP and that “she owes it to our members not to go around the world insulting and running down her own party”.