{"id":73549,"date":"2021-07-08T02:01:37","date_gmt":"2021-07-08T07:01:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=73549"},"modified":"2021-07-08T02:02:48","modified_gmt":"2021-07-08T07:02:48","slug":"newly-sworn-in-minister-of-finance-basil-rajapaksa-becomes-the-fourth-rajapaksa-siblin-and-fifth-member-of-the-family-to-enter-the-cabinetex-finance-minister-mahinda-rajapaksa-given-newly-creted-mi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=73549","title":{"rendered":"Newly Sworn in Minister of Finance Basil Rajapaksa Becomes  the fourth Rajapaksa Siblin and fifth member of the family to enter the Cabinet: Ex-Finance Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa Given Newly Creted Ministry of Economic Policies and Planning."},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>By<\/p>\n<p>Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Basil Rajapaksa, brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, was on Thursday sworn in as Sri Lanka\u2019s Minister of Finance, becoming the fourth Rajapaksa brother and fifth member of the first family to enter the Cabinet.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s son Namal Rajapaksa is also a Cabinet Minister.<\/p>\n<p>His appointment, enabled by the resignation of a government MP and Sri Lanka\u2019s nationalist list system \u2013 through which political parties get extra seats to Parliament based on their vote share \u2013 comes at a crucial time for the Rajapaksa administration that is facing an unprecedented economic crisis, compounded by the COVID-19 pandemic.<\/p>\n<p> His entry was also made possible by the government removing a constitutional provision barring dual citizens \u2014Mr. Basil Rajapaksa is also an American citizen \u2014 from entering Parliament.<\/p>\n<p><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>Mr. Basil Rajapaksa will take charge of the Finance Ministry, helmed until now by Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa, who was on Thursday allocated the newly-created portfolio of Economic Policies and Planning.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Basil Rajapaksa, who served as Minister for Economic Development in the former Mahinda Rajapaksa administration (2010-2015), was arrested in 2015 following allegations of corruption and released on bail. In November 2020, he was acquitted in the case.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Basil Rajapaksa is credited with building the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP or People\u2019s Front), the new political vehicle for the Rajapaksas\u2019 return to power in 2019.<\/p>\n<p>As chief strategist, it was Mr. Basil Rajapaksa who crafted President Gotabaya Rajapaksa\u2019s resounding victory in the presidential poll of 2019, as well as the party\u2019s sweep in the August 2020 general elections.<br \/>\n<em><br \/>\nCourtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n<div id=\"tweetbutton73549\" class=\"tw_button\" style=\"float:right;margin-left:10px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/twitter.com\/share?url=https%3A%2F%2Fdbsjeyaraj.com%2Fdbsj%2F%3Fp%3D73549&amp;text=Newly%20Sworn%20in%20Minister%20of%20Finance%20Basil%20Rajapaksa%20Becomes%20%20the%20fourth%20Rajapaksa%20Siblin%20and%20fifth%20member%20of...%20&amp;related=&amp;lang=en&amp;count=horizontal\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  style=\"width:55px;height:22px;background:transparent url('https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/wp-content\/plugins\/wp-tweet-button\/tweetn.png') no-repeat  0 0;text-align:left;text-indent:-9999px;display:block;\">Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Meera Srinivasan Basil Rajapaksa, brother of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa, was on Thursday sworn in as Sri Lanka\u2019s Minister of Finance, becoming the fourth Rajapaksa brother and fifth member of the first family to enter the Cabinet. Mr. Mahinda Rajapaksa\u2019s son Namal Rajapaksa is also a Cabinet Minister. His appointment, &#8230;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=73549\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading &lsquo;Newly Sworn in Minister of Finance Basil Rajapaksa Becomes  the fourth Rajapaksa Siblin and fifth member of the family to enter the Cabinet: Ex-Finance Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa Given Newly Creted Ministry of Economic Policies and Planning.&rsquo; &raquo;<\/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\/73549"}],"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=73549"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":73552,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73549\/revisions\/73552"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=73549"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=73549"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=73549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}