{"id":62427,"date":"2017-01-16T15:26:50","date_gmt":"2017-01-16T22:26:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=62427"},"modified":"2017-01-16T15:26:50","modified_gmt":"2017-01-16T22:26:50","slug":"ven-ratana-govt-has-reneged-on-its-promises-hambantoa-deal-has-irked-india","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2017\/01\/16\/ven-ratana-govt-has-reneged-on-its-promises-hambantoa-deal-has-irked-india\/","title":{"rendered":"Ven. Ratana: Govt. has reneged on its promises Hambantoa deal has irked India"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Harischandra Gunaratna\u00a0Courtesy The Island<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

National list MP and Head of Pivithuru Hetak Organisation Ven. Athulraliye Ratana Thera yesterday admitted that the government had not fulfilled its pre-election promises and what the masses should do was not to topple the government, but to make it fulfil its pledges.<\/p>\n

“Today, I am an independent MP striving to bring about a radical change in the country politically, economically and socially, which should have taken place many years ago,” the monk said.<\/p>\n

Addressing journalists at the Sri Lanka Foundation, the former Jathika Hela Urumaya stalwart said: “I have formed a potent force, a broad national force, consisting of specialists in different fields, scholars, intellectuals etc., to bring the country on the right track and arrest the rot in politics.”<\/p>\n

“I am just a people\u2019s representative. I cannot bring about the changes alone and need the support of the masses.”<\/p>\n

Ven. Ratana said former President Mahinda Rajapaksa would not be able to form another government and the powers enjoyed by the President should be reduced as promised before the election.<\/p>\n

“We should bring in constitutional amendments to return to the first-past-the-post system,” he said.<\/p>\n

The parliamentarian said both the Prime Minister and the President should listen to the voice of the people.<\/p>\n

Ven. Ratana said he was opposed to handing over 15,000 acres of land at Hambantota to the Chinese as he felt there was no transparency in the deal.<\/p>\n

The former JHU stalwart was of the view that the government by handing over the Hambantota Port to the Chinese had antagonised India and it should not have happened.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Both the previous government and the incumbent government should take the responsibility for this fatal mistake which would have severe repercussions on the country.<\/strong><\/p>\n

He said that former President J.R. Jayewardene too antagonised India and he had been brought to his knees.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Following JRs blunder India under Indira Gandhi allowed terrorist bases in Tamil Nadu and it could happen again albeit in a different manner, the monk warned.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Harischandra Gunaratna\u00a0Courtesy The Island National list MP and Head of Pivithuru Hetak Organisation Ven. Athulraliye Ratana Thera yesterday admitted that the government had not fulfilled its pre-election promises and what the masses should do was not to topple the government, but to make it fulfil its pledges. “Today, I am an independent MP striving […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6,5,106],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-62427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics","category-security","category-106"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62427","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=62427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62427\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}