Indian High Commissioner In Sri Lanka Meets Ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa Ahead Of Key Election

Indian High Commissioner in Colombo on Thursday, met with former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa to discuss political developments in the country ahead of next month’s presidential election.

The meeting came as the September election is seen as crucial to the island nation’s efforts to finalize a critical debt restructuring program and complete the financial reforms agreed to under an International Monetary Fund bailout program. Nominations for polling will be accepted on August 15.

“High Commissioner Santosh Jha called on former President of Sri Lanka H.E @PresRajapaksa and exchanged views on political developments in Sri Lanka,” the Indian mission said in a post on social media platform ‘X’.

Ambassador Jha met Mahinda a day after the former president’s son, Namal Rajapaksa, announced that he would run in the September 21 presidential election, challenging the incumbent, Ranil Wickremesinghe. The Rajapaksa family has dominated Sri Lankan politics since the country gained independence from Britain in 1948, producing a dozen lawmakers from three generations spanning seven decades.

Mahinda Rajapaksa ruled as president from 2005 to 2015, appealing to the nationalist sentiment of the island’s Buddhist-Sinhalese majority. Rajapaksa is revered by that majority for leading Sri Lanka to victory over ethnic Tamil rebels in 2009, ending a 26-year civil war.

In 2015, he lost to the opposition led by his former aide. But the family made a comeback in 2019, when Rajapaksa’s younger brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, won the presidential election on a promise to restore security in the wake of the Easter Sunday suicide bombings that killed 290 people. But the Rajapaksa family lost power unexpectedly in 2022 when Sri Lanka was engulfed in its worst economic crisis.

The resulting shortages of essential goods sparked riots in 2022, leading to a political crisis that forced four Rajapaksa siblings and two of their sons, including Namal, to resign from their posts as president, prime minister and cabinet ministers. Namal Rajapaksa had been the minister of youth and sports. But they remained as lawmakers. Parliament elected then-Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe as president.

The economic situation has improved under Wickremesinghe. However, public discontent remains over the government’s effort to increase revenue by raising electricity bills and imposing heavy new income taxes on professionals and businesses as part of efforts to meet the conditions of the IMF.

(With agency inputs)