Will Gota get the UN job!
Can Basil transform Pohottuwa ?
Government’s election ploy
According to the constitution, the local government election should have been held before next March, but the government led by President Ranil Wickramasinghe had planned from the beginning to somehow not hold the election and postpone it by another year or a few years like the former President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa did. Accordingly, various strategies were implemented by the government. The first tactic was to appoint a new delimitation committee and postpone the election for a certain period saying that it was necessary to redefine the boundaries.
This effort of the government got exposed during the discussion held with the President when Samantha Power, the chief administrator of USAID, came to Sri Lanka. Then, in a discussion with UNP professionals, the President said that the number of members of the local government institutions should be reduced from eight thousand to four thousand, and the powers held by the presidents of the institutions should be decentralized and that authority should be transferred to a committee. The president had mentioned that the government is even ready to go to a referendum on this if necessary. Their plan was to do this by blocking the opposition’s path to court.
Karu and Victor too brought in
In the second round, taking another step forward in the plan to postpone the elections, the government brought new characters to the fore. They are former speaker Karu Jayasuriya and civil activist Victor Ivan. Accordingly, the President, who even brought Karu and Victor to the Cabinet meeting, allowed them to deliver lectures to the Cabinet Ministers on the ‘Janasabha’ system. The President’s plan was to set up the necessary environment to postpone the election by saying that he would establish ‘Janasabha’ instead of the local council system. But it also did not seem to be very successful.
The former Macao too was brought
Accordingly, it was seen how the President made another effort to prepare the necessary environment for postponing the small vote by bringing another brand new character into the arena. The President at that time had chosen former Election Commissioner Mahinda Deshapriya, a person with extensive experience in the electoral system. The President’s plan was to appoint a new demarcation committee chaired by Mahinda Deshapriya and give the opportunity to hold discussions with all parties and get the necessary time to postpone the small election.
However, the opposition was not idle when the government made plans to postpone the elections in this way. It was seen how all the opposition parties, led by the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, sometimes jointly and sometimes individually, worked against this effort. From the very beginning, the Samagi Jana Balawega was seen taking the maximum possible measures against the government’s attempt to postpone the elections in the parliament, outside the parliament and in the courts. Very reason effort was, opposition leader Sajith Premadasa publicly launched a strong attack against the government’s attempt to postpone the elections by bringing Mahinda Deshapriya.
After that, when all the parties of opposition together attacked Mahinda Deshapriya, Mahinda Deshapriya made a special statement in front of the media and said that due to the work of his committee, there is no obstacle to conduct the elections and the elections can be conducted on time. With Mahinda’s statement, the government’s attempt to postpone the elections also failed.
There is also a problem in the Constituent Assembly
In the last few weeks, we have seen how the government has launched another plan when the trump card used to postpone the vote fell one by one. That is, with the passing of the 22nd constitutional amendment, to appoint a Constituent Assembly immediately and establish new commissions through it. The government’s plan was to appoint new members to the institutions like the Election Commission and the Sri Lanka Human Rights Commission, which are currently working directly, and direct the affairs in the way they want. For that purpose, the government had arranged to hold several meetings with the party leaders of the committee.
Sajith’s trump card
It is not that opposition did not understand these plans of the government. Accordingly, in the party leader’s meetings held, Sajith as the leader of the opposition had pointed out that since the citizens of the civil organizations appointed to the Constituent Assembly they should be qualified and independent persons, applications should be invited from the public and those members should be selected. Sajith’s suggestion was that newspaper advertisements should be published and a period of 2 weeks should be given. As all the party leaders including the speaker agreed to Sajith’s proposal, the government’s plan of hastily appointing new members to the commissions and the election postponement too came to an end.
Provincial councils brought forward
Accordingly, we are revealing for the first time through the ‘Rajya Rahas’ column about the latest trump card the government is planning to use to postpone the LG election. This time, the President’s plan is to use the Tamil parties in the North and East to create the necessary environment to postpone the local government elections. Accordingly, the President has planned to invite all Tamil political party leaders in the North and East for a discussion and bring forward the postponed Provincial Council elections which have been postponed for many years now and postpone the LG elections. Accordingly, the President has already arranged to invite the Tamil parties to come for negotiations.
These provincial councils disappeared because of the delimitation problem that the president brought when he was the prime minister of the good governance government. Accordingly, there is still no specific date regarding the holding of the postponed provincial council elections. Especially regarding the deactivation of North and East Provincial Councils, India, which is the founder of the Provincial Councils, is currently having a political tussle with the government.
Two birds with one stone
Accordingly, with the aim of killing two birds with one stone, in the negotiations with the Tamil parties government’s plan is to hold elections only for the two provincial councils in the north and east and establish provincial councils only in those two provinces. The government has also prepared an answer to the people of the south. It is to say that steps will be taken to hold other provincial council elections as it happened during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s rule one by one provincial council elections would be called in the country after the election booths these were held. Through that, it seems that the government’s plan is to postpone the local government elections not only in those provinces but also in Sri Lanka itself, to deprive the people of the south of the opportunity to vote, and to win the goodwill of India through the establishment of provincial councils in the north and east.
Tamil parties understand the government’s plan
However, the North East Tamil party leaders are already fed up with this subterfuge of the government. Accordingly, after being invited for talks, the Tamil party leaders in the north, R. Sambandan, C.V. Wigneswaran and Gajendra Kumar Ponnambalam have told the media in the North that the government is preparing to deceive the Tamil people once again. In the past, when the government had problems in the Geneva Human Rights Commission and when problems arose with India, they held talks with the Tamil parties to be seen by the world, and then the government forgot about them, and the leaders of the Tamil parties had commented to the media that this time also the government is in talks with the International Monetary Fund and India. And it has been emphasized to the media that they have been invited for talks to show that some talks have started. Accordingly, they have already announced that they will reject those negotiations. Accordingly, the government’s new attempt to postpone the local government election by holding the provincial council election only for the Northern and Eastern provinces is currently on the fence.
Dylan hands over the job to Ashoka
Sajith and the Samagi Jana Balawega understood that the government is continuously focusing on postponing the election. A proposal put forward by the Pohottuwa faction during the appointment of the president was that the government should not be dissolved.
However, it seemed that the government is making sure that the local government elections are not held even though they should be held.
Therefore, Sajith had instructed his General Secretary Ranjith Madduma Bandara to act immediately against this situation.
Accordingly, the opposition leader emphasized that the broad opposition should unite and face this and take every action possible to demand elections immediately and properly.
As a result, the Dallas faction first met Sajith at the opposition leader’s office.
“This government is trying to postpone the election. No matter how much the government says they will not, however the truth is they will postpone. Because the government knows what the result will be if an election is held at this time. Sajith said.
“It is true; there is no legal provision to postpone the election. It is very important to unite against this at this time.”
GL Peirise said.
“Let’s talk about this with all political parties of the opposition. “Let’s come to a common agreement and go to the Election Commission against this action of the government,” said Dullas.
“On one side, we will give a letter. Along with that, we will request an election and give a signature document.” Sajith said.
Accordingly, Ashoka Abeysinghe of Samagi Jana Balawega and Dilan Perera of Dullas were nominated to coordinate the work with other parties.
He also speaks to the SLFP
At that moment, the two parties first spoke to the Sri Lanka Freedom Party.
“We are against postponing the elections even for a moment, so we join forces with any group that opposes the work of the government.”
A positive response received from SLFP. Similar response was received from the various alliances.
Accordingly, the opposition group collectively decided to write a letter to the Election Commission requesting that the election be conducted immediately and properly.
Sajith advised the Samagi Jana Balawega, the groups of lawyers for it, was directed to the President’s counsel Ikram Mohammed.
Simultaneously, Sajith also advised to present a motion with the signatures of the MPs asking for an election.
During the budget speech signatures were collected
Accordingly, while the president was presenting the budget, the operation of collecting signatures had started.
As soon as they saw this operation, the ruling party was very curious and shocked.
Many members in the ruling party were curious to know why Ashoka and Dilan were collecting the signatures of the MPs.
However, Ashoka and Dylan had already made successful efforts to obtain the required number of signatures.
Entire opposition is in the Election Commission
The next day the group left for the Election Commission and the opposition groups that came separately joined together at the Election Commission.
EC take a strong stand
The Election Commission now has a trustee status.” Sajith said that when an Election Commission official said that, that statement is wrong. Ranjith Madduma Bandara, Anura Yapa, Chandima Veerakkodi, Dallas Alahapperuma, Dayasiri Jayasekara, Sumanthiran and others also approved Sajith’s argument.
“Now when can nominations be called for the local government elections?” General Secretary Ranjith asked.
“Nominations can be called in the second week of January,” said the Election Commission.
“Will the election be held on time?” Can you ensure it like that?” Sajith asked .
“The election will be held on time” was the reply of the Election Commission.
After that, opposition leader Sajith handed over the letter of request from the Election Commission of all the opposition parties requesting that the election be held at the right time.
Anura Yapa with Sajith
While the government is playing games to somehow postpone the local government elections, the opposition is thwarting the government’s efforts and fighting to hold the elections on specified time according to the constitution. Accordingly, a group that left the Podujana Peramuna and became independent (on the 14th) allied with the Samagi Jana Balawega led by opposition leader Mr. Sajith Premadasa. The first to join were Anura Priyadarshana Yapa, Chandima Veerakkodi and Jayaratne Herath.
Sajith said that he expressed his gratitude for coming together to work together for the building of the country and that this unity is extremely important to work more strongly and collectively in the future.
Anura Priyadarshana Yapa said that they came together as a result of several long discussions and that they will contribute to building the Samagi Jana Sandhanaya as a strong force in the future.
Our revelation about Gota
Last week we reported the latest information about the former President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa by making an extraordinary disclosure through the ‘State Secret’ column. There we discovered that Gota has proposed to the government that he be appointed as the Permanent Representative of Sri Lanka to the United Nations in order to go to the United States.
When Gota secretly fled Sri Lanka due to the people’s struggles on July 9th, his only goal was to somehow escape to America. Gota was unable to enter the US due to the fact that he first applied for a visa at the American Embassy in Sri Lanka but it was rejected. Accordingly Gota went to Maldives and then to Singapore. However, even though he submitted his application to enter the United States through the green card system while in Singapore, it is also in a situation where he is not getting it.
On the other hand, a few months ago, another obstacle raised preventing Gota to enter the United States due to a human rights lawsuit that has been assigned by the country’s attorney general against Gota in a US terrorism court. In the first round, Gota was to go to the US as the Sri Lankan ambassador to the US, but he had to present his credentials to the US President. If any problems arose at that point, and if the US President reject the credentials, he would have to face a number of serious problems. Gota tried to drop the ambassador’s proposal. It is learned that Gota has been advised that if he is named the permanent representative of the United Nations Organization, there will be no problem due to the change in the legal system of that organization and the fact that it is an independent institution.
Basil brought the suggestions
Accordingly, after we reported this information as a special news last week in the ‘Rajya Rahas’ column, many other related information are being reported to us. Accordingly, Basil Rajapaksa, who is currently in America, forwarded this proposal to the President first. The ‘Rajya Rahas’ column learned that many ideas were exchanged between Basil and the President in this regard, but it was not possible to reach a final agreement. It is also noted that there has been some discussion about the problems that may arise especially if such an appointment is made.
Gota comes to strengthen Ranil’s hands
However, the former President Gotabhaya Rajapaksa is trying his best these days to strengthen the hands of President Ranil Wickremesinghe. This special revelation from the Rajya rahas column is about a silent operation launched behind the scenes by Gota to strengthen Ranil in recent days. Perhaps Gota is doing this with the aim of becoming a permanent representative of the United Nations in mind.
After being elected as the new President in the Parliament, the main problem for Ranil is that India, America and the European Commission has not seen officially accepting his appointment. Even though a new president or prime minister’s first visit is India as the first official foreign visit as soon as a new president or prime minister takes office in Sri Lanka, so far the president has not received an invitation from Prime Minister Narendra Modi to visit India. Also, the US State Department has not yet officially congratulated the President.
The same is true of the European Commission. It goes without saying that all these will have a negative impact on the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, the negotiations with the World Bank, and the negotiations with the European countries. This is because the United States has contributes more to the IMF and the World Bank. On the other hand, Ranil’s inability to get an appointment from Modi despite requests from various parties has become a topic of discussion in the diplomatic arena.
First, the government looked to get the opportunity for this meeting through the Indian High Commission in Sri Lanka. But when it did not go well, the government tried to take advantage of the opportunity through Mr. Milinda Moragoda, the High Commissioner of Sri Lanka in India. That also failed. Two weeks ago, the President sent his personal secretary Mr. Sagala Ratnayake to India to take advantage of that opportunity. There, Sagala was only able to meet and discuss with the foreign secretary of that country. Accordingly, Sagala could not organize a meeting between Ranil and Modi. But recent incident related with Gota last week revealed that the government has not yet given up its efforts.
Try to get time through Doval
Mr. Ajit Doval, is the India’s National Security Adviser, is a strong figure in the country as well as a strong figure that represents the Indian government’s decision-making group (think tank) that works very closely with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Doval is also known as a figure who worked very closely with Gota during the last Gotabhaya government. Also, it was Ajit Doval who built Gota’s friendship with India’s ruling party, the Bharatiya Janata Party.
Because of this, Doval is a powerful figure in Modi’s government in India, Doval if he want can do or not do any work as he pleases. Apart from this, Milinda Moragoda had a close relationship with Gota as well as Doval, so Milinda, who met Doval last week, requested that a meeting between Modi and the President be somehow arranged. Subsequent to this request, it surfaced that Milinda has made another special request from Doval. That is to talk to Gota, as he is willing to talk to him.
Milind immediately got a good response and arranged a telephone conversation between Doval and Gota. After talking about the information in this friendly discussion, Gota made a very kind request to Doval and asked him to help the current president. Also, Gota, who mentioned that India’s help is very crucial for the President at this moment, and that there are a number of economic issues in the country, thus made a kind request to somehow intervene to arrange a meeting between Modi and Ranil.
Doval’s reply
Even though there was a very close friendship between Gota and Doval, as soon as this request was made, Doval gave a direct answer to Gota using his diplomatic language. From the information we have, the summary of the diplomatic reply is not a positive one. We also hear that Doval’s reply was that both Milind and Gota did not expect at all. Although this phone call between Gota and Doval was prepared last week, several special phone conversations took place between Gota and Doval when the struggle reached its peak last July. At that critical time, especially Doval too had taken steps to make several calls to Gota. At that time, Gota informed Doval that he was ready to resign from his position, and it is learned that Doval made a strong request to Gota.
The Rajya Rahas column learnt that Doval, who recalled that he had given Sri Lanka a huge sum of four billion US dollars, especially when the economic crisis was at its peak, and no one was willing to support. Gota had agreed to the strong request made later by Doval.
Not only Doval, but also some high level representatives of the Indian government had also ask Gota for the same request made by Doval. However, Gota had broken all that promises through the influence of various parties after secretly fled the country. With that, all the relations between India and Gota were damaged and broken, Gota too not unaware of that.
Last week Gota engaged in a phone conversation with Doval after a considerable period of time in this background. That is why it can be seen that India has completely abandoned Gota through the response received from Doval to Gota’s request on Ranil’s behalf.
India has now come to know another secret behind this incident. That is Basil Rajapaksa too was behind the breach of promises given to Doval by Gota. By now, India has confirmed that it was Basil who strongly influenced the breach of that promise. Accordingly, India is not in a good mood with Basil at the moment. Basil Rajapaksa, participated as the Minister of Finance, in the negotiations to provide aid of four billion dollars to Sri Lanka at a difficult time. Despite all this for initially agreeing and then violating the promise given to India they are currently in some political trouble with Basil.
Doval’s son has also come to Colombo secretly
However, a few days before this telephone conversation between Doval and Gota, another special incident happened in Colombo. Ajith Doval’s son Shaurya Doval suddenly came to Sri Lanka without much fanfare. Like Ajit Doval, Shaurya is also considered to be a member of the Indian BJP. As a figure who works closely with the party and Modi. And as a representative of Modi’s decision-making ‘think tank’. According to the information we have, it is said that Shaurya came to Sri Lanka for a two-day personal visit with an Indian businessman who is very close to him.
However, the President also learned that Doval’s son Shaurya had come to Sri Lanka on a private visit with another businessman. Accordingly, the president took steps to invite Shaurya for a private discussion. Here too, the president’s aim was to somehow arrange a meeting with Modi through Shaurya’s connections. Accordingly, it can be clearly seen from these events that the plan of the president as well as the government is to arrange a meeting with Modi by any means possible.
However, after meeting the President, Shaurya decided to leave for India the very next day. But it is still too early to say that the results of the meeting between the President and Shaurya will be positive based on the answers given to Doval and Gota.
Milinda is not coming though he said he is coming
In the meantime, according to Milinda’s notification that he will resign from the position of High Commissioner of Sri Lanka to India after Ranil became President, the President had decided to appoint a new representative for the post of High Commissioner of India in the last few days. Milinda should have resigned from his position to appoint this representative, but yet, Milinda’s failure to do so has raised a number of problems. Last week, Milinda, who was very disappointed due to Sagala’s sudden visit to India without informing Milinda, informed his friends that he will be going back to Sri Lanka very soon. Milinda had taken steps to inform his Indian friends about that. But it has been learned that since last week, Milinda has been making efforts in various ways to give the President a meeting with Modi and a situation has arisen that the President is unable to call Milinda back.
No greetings from America yet
In addition to not being able to prepare the meeting with Indian Prime Minister Modi in this way, the fact that the American government has not yet officially accepted the appointment of the President and issued congratulations has also become a matter of discussion in the diplomatic field. In the past, on several occasions, we have reported on this channel that the President tried to get this American recognition through various tactics. Once when Samantha Power came to Sri Lanka, the President tried to inform the American government about this through her, but it was not successful either.
In spite of this situation, the fact that the President has had conflicts with Mrs. Julie Chang, the American Ambassador to Sri Lanka, has become a problematic situation. At that time, it was not so unfavorable for Sri Lanka, but it can be clearly seen that it has been drawn to a very serious situation in view of the economic and international issues that have arisen. Especially in the negotiations with the International Monetary Fund, due to the fact that there were opinions expressed in some discussions that this would have a very negative effect, it was seen that Ranil followed a quiet approach without going into a conflict with Chang in the recent past.
US Mid term Elections
Also, in the internal discussions, some had informed the President that the Democratic Party represented by the current President Joe Biden would suffer a severe setback in the midterm elections held in the United States. They had also informed the President that the Republican Party led by Donald Trump would win a huge victory in that election. Accordingly, the President has been silent for the past period with the aim of getting official recognition for his government under that government after Trump’s Republican Party came to power. In general, the Republican Party is known for not paying much attention to human rights. But the Democratic government led by Biden is not. They pay close attention to human rights. The president’s current government has not yet received official recognition from the United States because of this issue of human rights violations.
Did the group mislead Ranil?
But the result of the American presidential election was completely different from the one that had been explained to the president. There, the current President Biden’s Democratic Party managed to gain a lot of power again. After that victory, Biden, who came to the G20 summit attended by world leaders, was also seen extending his hands of friendship to Chinese President Xi Jinping and discussing. It is also not a good sign from Sri Lanka’s side.
Under this situation, if the government takes steps to postpone the local government election, or if it continues to violate human rights, or if Vasantha Mudalige and Siridhamma Thero are further imprisoned under the Prevention of Terrorism Act, the international impact will not be insignificant. Accordingly, it should be noted that not only the government has to hold the election on time, but also that the time has come to protect human rights.
Basil comes with the new constitution
While all this is happening, Mr. Basil Rajapaksha, who is considered to be the mastermind of Pohottuwa, is scheduled to come to Sri Lanka on the 20th. This was revealed to the country for the first time on last Tuesday by our website. Before Basil decided to come to Sri Lanka, he had taken steps to exchange views with the President on many occasions. According to the information received from Sri Lanka during these discussions, Basil had to face several serious issues during his trip to Sri Lanka. The first of which is the continued waning of the pohottuwa’s power. Also, the gradual loss of power of the Rajapaksa has become a serious problem that Basil has to face. Because of this, Basil took steps to prepare a plan from America to rebuild this power which has been sinking for the past period.
The first of which was the introduction of a new constitution to the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna or Pohottuwa, which had wandered without a constitution until now. Accordingly, with the full knowledge of Basil, the new constitution is currently being prepared in the bud. So far, the pot was implemented on the word of mouth of the Rajapaksas without a constitution. There was no working committee or central committee to make decisions like in other parties. That is why Pohottua was not able to take any action regarding the MPs who went outside the party decision or the MPs who work independently. Accordingly, it has been learned that steps have been taken to prepare a new party constitution as well as a formal system including its official board, working committee, disciplinary affairs, etc. on Basil’s advice.
Namal’s game plan back fires
However, during the time when Basil was not in Sri Lanka, Namal Rajapaksa made a great effort to take over the power of Pohottuva. Accordingly, Namal started holding meetings from Hambantota through the Constituency Committee and tried to go to the district level, but it failed because the councilors called Namal and informed Namal not to come to their districts as there is still opposition from the people. Accordingly, Namal’s plan to tour the country with the party failed in the first round. Namal recently also took steps to appoint a young Muslim woman to a high position in the party. Namal also mention that on his Twitter account. But there was serious opposition from within the party. Because of this, the aforementioned Muslim girl had to post a message on her Twitter account that she did not accept such a position in the Pohottu Party.
Pohottuwa convention in January
However, earlier Basil had planned to hold the party’s sixth general conference in a grand manner this November. Before leaving for America, Basil had taken steps to plan all the necessary work for that. But Namal did not want to hold the party convention in November. Namal’s plan was to take over the party’s power and then hold the party’s general conference. Accordingly, Namal used his father’s powers to postpone the party convention until next January.
According to the news we have, Namal is ready to take over the post of National Organizer which was under Basil and hold the General Conference in January to seize power of the party. But now, with the decision taken to prepare the new constitution by Basil party will appoint a new board of officers, thus making Namal’s plans have gone awry. Basil has also decided to remove current chairman Mr. G.L Peiris from that position and bring in a new character. Apart from that, it has been learned that Basil has now decided to empower the party’s back row youth members by giving them higher positions and to remain in the party as the national organizer.
A proposal to Ranil from the Pohottuwa
In addition to all this, Basil has made another special proposal in a discussion with the President, the ‘Rajya rahas’ column has also learnt. It is about building a new political alliance between Pohottuwa and UNP after preparing the party constitution properly and holding the convention. We had reported on this on several occasions through the ‘State Secrets’ channel, where we said that the President is trying to take over the power of Potottu through various tactics.
We had also reported that the President is carrying out the operation using MPs like Nimal Lanza, who are considered to be seniors in Pohottuwa. But now Basil has planned to form a political alliance with the President and the UNP after strengthening Pohottuwa and give the presidential candidacy to Mr. Ranil Wickramasinghe in the next presidential election. Also, Basil has proposed to compete in the general election with a political alliance of UNP and Pohottua. However, all this will be decided after Basil’s return to Sri Lanka.
Plight of Rajitha
Rajitha Senaratne became the main political topic in Sri Lanka last week. That is because the news that Rajitha will join the government on the day of the presentation of the budget by the President has been given a lot of publicity by the Sri Lankan media. Without any morals, some media outlets had taken steps to give a lot of publicity to this news by publishing the news on the front pages that Rajitha is joining the government with a large group of Sajben. But in the end what actually happened was not Rajitha leaving Sajaben and joining the government on the day the budget was presented, but six MPs who were with the government came to the opposition leader’s office and met Sajith and expressed their support for the opposition. But it was a special event that no action was taken to give any publicity to this news in the said media.
If you give it to Rajitha, then give it to Rohita and Joney also
However, when the news of Rajitha’s joining the government made waves in the political arena, during the last cabinet discussion held before the budget was presented to the parliament, several cabinet ministers who are neutral and have some approval of the people took steps to ask the president about this. Their argument was that if Rajitha is to be included in the cabinet, then the seniors of Pohottuwa, who have the same charges as Rajitha, should also be included in the cabinet.
There is an information that you are going to take Mr. Rajitha Senaratne to the government and make him a minister. No problem with that. But if you give a minister to Rajitha, you should give ministers to Pohottuwa Johnston and Rohita. If so, all of them should be taken to the cabinet at once. Because Minister Rajitha has the same accusations as why you should not include Johnyla and Rohitala in the cabinet. That’s why we see that there is no difference between Rajitha, Johnny and Rohit. All three have the same charges. We are MPs from Pohottuwa. That’s why you are trying to give Rajitha a ministership without taking it to the cabinet that there are allegations against our MPs in Pohottuwa; we are embarrassed within the party over this.
We hear that the President gave a wonderful answer when the ministers said in unison, “Give it to all three of them.”
‘No, I have not given a promise anywhere that I will give Rajitha a minister ship. It is Rajitha’s family (mentioning names) who keep calling me and telling me that Rajitha needs to come and to give him a cabinet. I don’t even know if he will do politics in the future. These people also send me messages about his health. One from our side also tells me that he had come to meet him and talked about the ministry. But I have not made any promises to anyone…’ The news we received is that the President has said.
Rajitha’s arrival is disadvantageous for the government
However, several ministers who are very close to the President have also held a special round of discussions regarding Rajitha. Many people have pointed out to the President that if Rajitha takes the government at this time, it will be a great advantage for SJB.
If Rajitha is taken at this time, it will be disadvantageous for the government. Good for you. Because when people like Rajitha are present, even together with JVP we can attack SJB. If we pull Rajitha, it will be like cleaning SJB. Because of that, let’s keep people like Rajitha alone…’ It has been learned that the seniors’ suggestion not take Rajitha to the government.
The story told by MPs to Sajith
Also, several rounds of special discussions were held last week regarding Rajitha within Sahabaya. There, many young MPs met Sajith and informed him to send Rajitha to the government anyway. These MPs informed Sajith that it would be beneficial for SJB if he did so. But Sajith said that he could never do that. Sajith told the young MPs that even though they had seen money bags and Singapore air tickets being given to MPs who were going to join the government in the same way during Ranil’s regime, they could not do such a thing.
Sajith also informed the MPs that ‘Rajitha is neither saying that he is going nor that he is not going…’.
Nevertheless, Rajitha came to meet Sajith on Monday morning when the media had reported that Rajitha would join the government. There, Rajitha said that the media had reported various rumors about him, but he had no plans to join the government.
Expensive Tea Party cancelled
When the President presented his first budget to the Parliament as the Minister of Finance, many expected that the government would reduce its expenditure as much as possible. Giving a green light for that, the government said that with the aim of reducing costs, the president has taken steps to cancel even the traditional tea ceremony given to ambassadors, parliamentary ministers and distinguished guests after presenting the budget. Accordingly, many people thought that this year’s budget will cut unnecessary expenses a lot.
In this way, after suspending the tea ceremony of the budget, the chief organizer’s office of the ruling party had informed all the ministers of the government that the president had planned to hold a special briefing on the budget at Temple Trees. Steps were also taken to inform that all the ministers should participate. However, after that notification, on the following day, the ruling party’s chief organizer’s office again informed all MPs that the discussion at Temple House was cancelled, and instead, the ministers will be held at the Kingsbury Hotel in Colombo.
A dinner full of super honey and delicacies has been prepared. Accordingly, the ruling party’s chief organizer’s office had arranged to inform all the MPs to participate.
A grand dinner party at Kingsbury
However, after this was reported on our ‘Mawrataninews’ website, the members of the government called the main office of the ruling party and informed that they would not be able to participate in this superb dinner.
We can’t come to that. Because when we go there after eating and drinking, we get beaten up by people. Now people don’t even have food to eat. In such a situation, if we go to eat like this, we will end up eating it as our last meal…’ After the MPs spoke and informed, the chief organizer’s office of the government took steps to inform the president about this.
Also, when this news was reported, the opposition also prepared to question in the parliament where the money came from to hold a superb dinner with whiskey and brandy at the Kingsbury Hotel for the government which canceled the traditional tea party given to the MPs saying it was too expensive.
The grand dinner goes back to the tea party
After this situation was reported to the President, the President took steps to cancel the dinner at the Kingsbury Hotel. Instead, the necessary arrangements were made to prepare a tea ceremony in the Parliament again. But none of the MPs were informed or taken care of. Instead, measures were taken to display only a brief reference a tea party would be held that evening in the Parliament dining hall. Accordingly, three tables with different types of food were prepared for the tea party, but on that day only one table with pastries and rolls was seen.
G.L. First time on a new job
The Freedom Janata Sabha office was very busy during the last week due to the focus on making the ‘Prelude to Freedom’ program a success. It was here that G.L. Peiris was involved in organizing a political program for the first time in history. The fact that the professor came to the office every day and looked after the organization was a new sight for others.
Everyone wanted the event to be held in a unique way, not just another ordinary political program.
A group suggested ‘Let’s hand over the pair of Freedom Papers’ to senior politicians and religious leaders.
‘It is not. This should be handed over to the youth and university students…’ was the opinion of Dr. Upul Galappatti
‘Who will be speaking on that day’? That was the next question.’
Leaders talk every day. Let’s let the newcomers speak instead,’ Dallas suggested.
That is how the youths were called to the stage to present the manifesto, and the manifesto was presented to three other seniors.
The event organizers had decided to welcome everyone with betel leaves. That task was entrusted to MP Dylan Perera and MP Udayana Kirindigoda.’
A very sensitive incident happened there.’ When a left trade union leader received a betel leaf, he asked with surprise and tears in his eyes, ‘Why are you giving us betel leaves….’
All were welcomed warmly
We welcome well-known and popular ministers as well as everyone who comes here. It’s because you are valuable to us’, Dylan Perera held his shoulder and said tenderly.
Each other had taken over the work of the festival.’ The Kirindigoda MP was in charge of writing the script.
MP from Ampara slept on the road
Mr. Tilak MP of Ampara undertook the editing of the report.’ On the 12th around 8 pm, he took the necessary equipment and went to a certain editing studio in Maharagama to finish the editing work.
Fallen asleep on the road
By the time work was over, it was around five in the morning. The MP who came alone after driving his cab felt sleepy with exhaustion. Convinced that driving the vehicle from now on could lead to an accident, the MP stopped the vehicle on the side of the road and closed his eyes to take some rest. Suddenly he felt someone knocking on the window of the vehicle and when he opened his eyes he saw a police officer. He immediately looked at the watch on his wrist. It’s half past seven in the morning. The vehicle was parked in an unauthorized place.
‘Sir, I am Member of Parliament Tilak Rajapaksa…’
Why Sir, Is there something wrong?’ asked an officer who recognized the person.
‘I realized that I couldn’t move the vehicle and blinked a little. Without realizing it, it’s morning…’
‘Ah, so you can’t park here…’
‘Sorry, it happened because it was late at night. There is no problem if a fine is imposed. Do your duty without looking at who I am…’ No, I don’t need that. Stopped the vehicle and
stopped an accident…” The police officers had taken steps to send the MP away soon
Dullas oversees everything
Dulles, who oversaw all the organization of the event, also personally oversaw the seating for the night. Undeterred, he came to the office and changed his plans. The following morning, Dallas also joined in imposing seats on the councilors.
‘Member so early this morning…’
Can’t do without. No councilor or guest can be inconvenienced…” Dallas replied.
The characters who spoke at the event, Herath and Nalaka Godaheva, had attracted the attention of the visitors. Those stories were appreciated by many.
By Special correspondent