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Basil Rajapaksa sworn in as Sri Lanka finance minister

Basil is the fifth from the Rajapaksa clan to be sworn in as Sri Lanka minister

Basil Rajapaksa | Reuters Basil Rajapaksa | Reuters

Basil Rajapaksa, younger brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa was sworn in as the finance minister to Sri Lanka’s cabinet. Fifth from the Rajapaksa clan and fourth of the brothers, Basil’s appointment comes at a time when Sri Lanka has been witnessing a downfall in its economy due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Basil’s appointment has been enabled by the resignation of SLPP national list MP Jayantha Ketagoda. The election commission on Wednesday issued an extraordinary gazette naming Basil as a Member of Parliament. Basil will head the Finance portfolio which was held by his elder brother Mahinda, who has been allocated a newly created portfolio of Economic Policies and Planning. 

Earlier, it was speculated that Basil will head the newly created portfolio as most of the junior MPs in Sri Lanka’s parliament have been going on record that he would have prevented the recent fuel price hike and saved the island nation from the economic crisis. But Basil will now play a crucial role in determining the country’s finances, with his past experience as the minister of Economic Development in the earlier Mahinda Rajapaksa cabinet from 2010 to 2015. 

Basil is again the fifth from the clan next to Mahinda as the Prime minister, Gotabaya as the President, elder brother Chamal as minister of irrigation and Mahinda’s son Namal as the minister of Digital Technology and Entrepreneur Development. 

Known as the chief strategist of the electoral victories of the Rajapaksas in the recent past, Basil is the architect of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) as the strongest political party in the Island nation. It was Basil’s strategy that helped lure big names from Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) which dominated the political arena since Sri Lanka’s independence. Basil’s action-plan for building the SLPP can be traced back to 2015, after Mahinda lost the elections to the Mathiripala Sirisena- Ranil Wickremesinghe combine. Basil, soon after he was released from jail in a case of alleged misappropriation of funds, sat down to create the brand Rajapaksas, shunning the Bandaranaike legacy. While his brothers Mahinda and Gotabaya were known for their intellectual links, Basil was the man behind strengthening the party at the ground level. His crowd mobilisation for every political rally got the much needed attention to drive the fledgling party to a massive victory in the civic polls in 2018, then in the 2019 Presidential polls and later Mahinda as the Prime Minister in 2020. 

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