{"id":45908,"date":"2015-07-19T22:56:37","date_gmt":"2015-07-20T04:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=45908"},"modified":"2015-07-19T15:10:51","modified_gmt":"2015-07-19T22:10:51","slug":"rajapaksa-whips-ranil-at-anuradhapura","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/07\/19\/rajapaksa-whips-ranil-at-anuradhapura\/","title":{"rendered":"Rajapaksa whips Ranil at Anuradhapura…"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Skandha Gunasekara\u00a0Courtesy The Ceylon Today<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n
\n

United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) candidate for the Kurunegala District and former President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, addressing the inaugural UPFA rally in Anuradhapura yesterday, launched a scathing attack on United National Party leader Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe charging him for reversing the development process that was pursued by the previous Rajapaksa regime.
\nThe former President, who arrived on the stage as the Prime Ministerial candidate for the UPFA, said that the so called good governance government led by the United National Party (UNP), has in just six months backtracked the development process in the country that was initiated by the previous regime to benefit the people.<\/p>\n

“Look at what Ranil Wickremesinghe and the current government have done to all the development projects started during my tenure in office? Those have been brought to a complete standstill. If in a short period of just six months they can undo all the progress we made in four years, imagine the damage they would do if they are given five years to govern this country?” the former President asked, adding that 58,000 rural development projects had been stopped by the present government led by Wickremesinghe.
\nRajapaksa accused Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe of orchestrating the controversial Central Bank Bond issue adding that Ranil was a hypocrite and added that Wickremesinghe alleged that Rajapaksas’ stole from the people.
\n“The country’s largest financial fraud was perpetrated soon after Ranil Wickremesinghe became Prime Minister this year. Over Rs. 50 billion was plundered through the Bond scam. All those who called me and my government thieves should look in the mirror and see themselves”, the former President urged.<\/p>\n

Rajapaksa said the peace that the country regained in 2009 existed no more, citing as an example the atrocious rape-murder that took place in Jaffna in the recent past noting it was dreadful for a young girl to walk alone in the peninsula.
\n“We were able to free this country from terrorism. Not even six months have passed since the UNP came into power,the North is in total chaos endangering the lives of the people. Some have even said that the LTTE rule was more preferable to the situation that prevails in the north today”, he observed.<\/p>\n

The former President continued to state that the Prime Minister was to blame for bowing his head to the LTTE leader in 2001 instead of defeating the terrorist organization at that early stage.
\n“Do you all remember how the present Prime Minister betrayed the country in 2001? Do you remember how he gave our Army’s intelligence to the LTTE”,he asked.
\nRajapaksa alleged that similar to LTTE leader Vellupillai Prabhakaran proclaiming that he would defeat him (Rajapaksa), the new regime too hoped to do the same.<\/p>\n

“The LTTE wanted me dead and done with. They did not succeed. Now, the Good Governance government has also stated that they will “sweep away the Rajapaksa’s”. Are they repeating the words of the LTTE”, the former President queried.
\nHe further accused the present government of interrogating state officials in a threatening manner without reason and cause.
\n“Do you know that so far the Prime Minister has had over 800 people interrogated? They are being interrogated for the sole reason of having worked for my government. Some have been interrogated at gunpoint. Is this good governance?”, Rajapaksa asked the crowds at the venue.<\/p>\n

The former President promised that if he and his government were to return to power following the August election, a series of changes would be made in the country.
\n“We will ensure that there is religious freedom for all. We will uplift the country’s economy and the living standards of the people” the former President said, noting that the achievement of Colombo being named the fastest growing city in the world as a result of the development that took place during the Rajapaksa regime would be further sustained.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Skandha Gunasekara\u00a0Courtesy The Ceylon Today United People’s Freedom Alliance (UPFA) candidate for the Kurunegala District and former President, Mahinda Rajapaksa, addressing the inaugural UPFA rally in Anuradhapura yesterday, launched a scathing attack on United National Party leader Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe charging him for reversing the development process that was pursued by the previous […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45908","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45908","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45908"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45908\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45908"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45908"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45908"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}