Colombo, June 10 (Representative) A month after the older brother and former Prime Minister of Sri Lanka’s President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, resigned, his younger brother Basil Rajapaksa, the country’s former finance minister followed suit, resigning on Thursday from parliament amid the country’s severe economic crisis. “From today, I will not be involved in any government activities but I cannot, and will not, step away from politics,” Basil Rajapaksa told reporters at the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) headquarters in Colombo. The island nation of 22 million people is suffering its worst economic crisis in seven decades, with shortages of fuel, medicines, and cooking gas brought about by a severe lack of foreign exchange stalling imports. The architect of SLPP didn’t concede defeat and refused to be blamed for the current economic turmoil the country is going through. “No, I’m not passing the buck to the people. But yes, they do hold some responsibility for electing us to power.
If, as you say, we passed the buck, then those who gave us the buck in the first place are also responsible,” he added. I was the person to send the first letter to the IMF after becoming finance minister, Basil said noting, “It is the work I started that is now being taken forward.” He agreed that his family is better at politics than at governance. He also pointed out that there are many such cases globally. “India’s RSS has been around for years, but they do not govern directly. The BJP has taken on that role,” he said. He reminded us that the country has been running on debt since 1961 and that the government was divided on approaching the International Monetary Fund for a bailout. He refused to take the blame for the crisis and said that he had done his job as the finance minister to the best of his ability. “I have no regrets.” On June 08, the founder of Sri Lanka Basil Rajapaksa was sworn in as the Cabinet Minister of Finance. The same day, he took oath as a Member of the Parliament. The Elections Commission had gazetted Rajapaksa’s name for the SLPP MP seat left vacant after the resignation of former MP Jayantha Ketagoda. Meanwhile, business tycoon Dhammika Perera is tipped to enter the parliament to fill the MP seat being vacated by Basil Rajapaksa and take up a ministerial portfolio linked to the investment sector.