{"id":61533,"date":"2018-11-07T22:35:18","date_gmt":"2018-11-08T02:35:18","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=61533"},"modified":"2018-11-07T22:36:05","modified_gmt":"2018-11-08T02:36:05","slug":"ranil-wickremesinghe-willing-to-work-with-president-sirisena-again-ill-have-no-problem-working-with-him-thats-a-question-you-must-ask-him-ranil-tells-the-hindu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=61533","title":{"rendered":"Wickremesinghe Willing To Work With Sirisena Again: \u201cI\u2019ll have no problem working with him, that\u2019s a question you must ask him” Ranil Tells “The Hindu”."},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he is willing to work with President Maithripala Sirisena, who abruptly sacked him on October 26, if given a chance to prove his majority in Parliament.<\/p>\n

Caught in an unprecedented power struggle, Mr. Wickremesinghe is trying to claim legitimacy as the country\u2019s premier, after Mr. Sirisena appointed former President Mahinda Rajapaksa in his place and subsequently prorogued Parliament until November 16.<\/p>\n

The bitter relationship between Mr. Sirisena and Mr. Wickremesinghe appears to have further deteriorated this week, with the President resorting to personal attacks on him at a recent public meeting.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

On whether he could still work with the President, Mr. Wickremesinghe said: \u201cI\u2019ll have no problem working with him, that\u2019s a question you must ask him. The Constitution doesn\u2019t make provision for personal prejudices,\u201d he said on Tuesday, in an interview to The Hindu at Temple Trees, the official residence of the Prime Minister.<\/p>\n

Deposed over 10 days ago, Mr. Wickremesinghe has steadfastly remained here, despite open threats from Mr. Rajapaksa\u2019s supporters demanding he vacate and a sharp reduction of his security detail. On Tuesday evening, the premises was teeming with people, mostly supporters of Mr. Wickremesinghe. They waited around different entry points to the iconic Colonial-era building to catch a glimpse of their 69-year-old leader, who has been in Parliament for over four decades.<\/p>\n

Constant chants of the \u2018pirith\u2019, which Buddhists believe will keep evil and misfortune away, filled the air. They emanated from a white pandal erected right outside the main entrance. Two monks in saffron robes were seated inside and chanting into a microphone. \u201cWe have had this chant non-stop for 10 days now,\u201d a security staff said.<\/p>\n

Amid the persisting political crisis Mr. Wickremesinghe is optimistic about an early recall of Parliament. \u201cThe Parliament\u2019s power is supreme and that is what the Speaker has upheld,\u201d he said, referring to Speaker Karu Jayasuriya\u2019s statement on Monday, noting that Mr. Rajapaksa will not be recognised as PM until he wins a floor test. \u201cI am confident of having the numbers,\u201d Mr. Wickremesinghe said, adding: \u201cThe fact that they are delaying the recall is because they don\u2019t have the numbers.\u201d Mr. Sirisena, who earlier suspended Parliament until November 16, has recalled the House for November 14. \u201cThe delay worries me because it makes the country more unstable,\u201d the ousted PM said.<\/p>\n

As of Wednesday evening, the Wikremesinghe-led front had 99 MPs, while the Sirisena-Rajapaksa combine had 104, short of nine lawmakers to prove majority in the 225-member House. However, Mr. Wickremesinghe has the implicit support of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) and the leftist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), with 15 and 6 lawmakers respectively. In Opposition currently, both have deemed Mr. Rajapaksa\u2019s appointment \u201cunconstitutional\u201d and are expected to vote against him in order to \u201cprotect democracy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Wikremesinghe, who has pegged his chances entirely to a floor test, has ruled out a court appeal on the matter, citing the Parliament\u2019s \u201csupreme judicial powers.\u201d Reiterating the position, he said: \u201cEven if you go to court they send will you back to parliament on this matter. We are different from yours [Indian context].\u201d<\/p>\n

On his strategy to stabilise to the country, should he prove his majority, Mr. Wickremesinghe said the cabinet might have to be reconstituted because some had left it, and joined the \u201cnew cabinet\u201d that Mr. Sirisena has sworn in. \u201cBut the Speaker has very well said the status quo of [last] Friday stands. Unless they prove a majority that stands.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked what if Mr. Rajapaksa won the floor test Mr. Wickremesinghe, even before the question was completed, said: \u201cHe won\u2019t be able to prove a majority.\u201d Pressed again for a response to such a hypothetical scenario, he said: \u201cI don\u2019t know about hypothesis, I am talking about the actual situation. He does not have the numbers.\u201d<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Meera Srinivasan Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he is willing to work with President Maithripala Sirisena, who abruptly sacked him on October 26, if given a chance to prove his majority in Parliament. Caught in an unprecedented power struggle, Mr. Wickremesinghe is trying to claim legitimacy as the country\u2019s premier, after Mr. …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘Wickremesinghe Willing To Work With Sirisena Again: \u201cI\u2019ll have no problem working with him, that\u2019s a question you must ask him” Ranil Tells “The Hindu”.’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61533"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=61533"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61533\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":61535,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/61533\/revisions\/61535"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=61533"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=61533"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=61533"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}