Govt. coalition parties intensify attack on Basil R

• 11-party coalition partners address joint press briefing 
• Gammanpila says FM responsible for country’s economic downfall 
• Accuses him of ignoring CBSL proposals to put country on track
• Vasudeva Nanayakkara says Basil’s entry to Parliament intensified conflicts in Govt.
• Rathana Thero says person serving as FM cannot add 2 plus 2 and lacks basic education

By Chandani Kirinde

Udaya Gammanpila

Wimal weerawansa

Vasudeva Nanayakkara

The 11-party coalition partners in the ruling SLPP-led Government yesterday intensified their attacks on Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa blaming him for the country’s economic woes and said he must take responsibility for the suffering people were undergoing due to shortages and price hikes.

“If a patient dies today because he does not have medicine for cancer treatment or a heart ailment, Basil Rajapaksa is responsible for their death. If people are undergoing hardships standing in queues, he is responsible for that too,” former Minister Udaya Gammanpila said.

The ousted minister addressed a joint press conference with Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara, MPs Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thero, Tissa Vitara, Jayantha Samaraweera and other representatives of the 11-party coalition at the N.M. Perera Centre in Colombo.

Gammanpila said that since taking over as Finance Minister, Rajapaksa had ignored both those in the Cabinet as well as the Central Bank who had warned that the country would face an unprecedented economic crisis if urgent measures were not put in place on time.

“In October 2021, the Central Bank prepared a report with measures to be implemented to stabilise the economy and gave it to the Finance Minister to get Cabinet approval for it. It has not happened till today because he is yet to present this report to the Cabinet,” Gammanpila said.

Minister Vasudeva Nanayakkara said the conflicts within the Government had aggravated since Basil Rajapaksa’s entry to parliament in July 2021.

“We were against dual citizens serving as MPs and we told President Gotabaya Rajapaksa when the 20th Amendment to the Constitution was drafted. At one meeting with the President, I asked him, ‘Are you including this in the 20th Amendment to bring Basil? If so, tell us.’ He however assured us that was not the motive,” Nanayakkara said.

He added that Basil Rajapaksa wanted to further American interest in the Indian Ocean and his US citizenship was of paramount importance to him and hence would not give it up.

Ven. Athuraliye Rathana Thero said that there was a collective effort by political parties and organisations to bring the President to power, but they had been completely ignored by him.

“When the country is facing an economic crisis of this magnitude, the ruler must be magnanimous but here all the decisions are made by the family in the family kitchen Cabinet while the country is facing the repercussions of their wrong policies,” he said.

The Thera said a person who could not add two plus two, had a low IQ and didn’t have a basic education had been appointed the Finance Minister and hence the country had been plunged into the worst economic crisis since independence.