{"id":77209,"date":"2018-05-07T15:40:45","date_gmt":"2018-05-07T22:40:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=77209"},"modified":"2018-05-07T15:40:45","modified_gmt":"2018-05-07T22:40:45","slug":"having-robbed-cbsl-unp-eyeing-samurdhi-bank-mr-president-desperate-to-prevent-more-defections","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2018\/05\/07\/having-robbed-cbsl-unp-eyeing-samurdhi-bank-mr-president-desperate-to-prevent-more-defections\/","title":{"rendered":"Having robbed CBSL, UNP eyeing Samurdhi bank \u2013 MR \u2018President desperate to prevent more defections\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em><b>Courtesy The Island<\/b><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n<p><span class=\"article_date\">May 7, 2018, 11:43 pm<\/span><br \/>\nThe UNP was now eyeing the assets of the Samurdhi Bank greedily after robbing the Central Bank, Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa said, yesterday, addressing the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) May Day rally in Galle.<\/p>\n<p>Commenting on President Maithripala Sirisena\u2019s declaration that he would not retire from politics in 2020, Rajapaksa said: &#8220;He has to say this. Otherwise, the few SLFP MPS who remain in the government will also decamp.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>By postponing the International Workers\u2019 Day to May 07 the government had insulted the working class, Rajapaksa said, claiming that the government taxed the people in a worse manner than notorious British Governor Torrington.<\/p>\n<p>Rajapaksa said: &#8220;This is the largest May day rally in our history. We brought the government to its knees by holding a massive rally in Galle Face last year. Now, the government will crawl.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The former President said the incumbent government was not capable of governing even a Grama Niladari division and that the country had become a police state.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Things are so bad that gangsters are given police protection for their weddings. There is no security for the people, but underworld goons are well protected. Due to political instability and the breakdown in the law and order situation, foreign investors are leaving the country.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy The Island May 7, 2018, 11:43 pm The UNP was now eyeing the assets of the Samurdhi Bank greedily after robbing the Central Bank, Former President Mahinda Rajapaksa said, yesterday, addressing the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) May Day rally in Galle. Commenting on President Maithripala Sirisena\u2019s declaration that he would not retire from [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-77209","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77209","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=77209"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77209\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}