Amid economic crisis and violent protests, Mahinda Rajapaksa tendered his resignation as the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka on Monday. Rajapaksa's party had an absolute majority in the Sri Lankan Parliament. But despite this, the two and a half million people of Sri Lanka forced him to step down as prime minister in just 28 days. This shows how great the power of the people is in a democracy.
In his resignation letter sent to Sri Lanka's President and his younger brother Gotabaya Rajapaksa, he considers the economic situation in the country to be very serious. However, in his resignation, he does not consider himself to be blameworthy for the current situation in Sri Lanka.
This was the case in Sri Lanka because it was ruled by a family government. And this is the family, the Rajapaksa family. Before the economic crisis, the Rajapaksa family had seven members in the Sri Lankan government.
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Among them, Gotabaya Rajapaksa is still the President of Sri Lanka. Mahinda Rajapaksa was the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka, but now he has resigned. Apart from this, Chamal Rajapaksa was the irrigation minister in the government and the youngest brother Basil Rajapaksa was the finance minister.
That is, the four brothers were in major constitutional positions in Sri Lanka. But now only Gotabaya Rajapaksa remains in the post of president. And the rest have resigned from their posts in the government.
This is also significant because Sri Lanka had general elections in August 2020. And then the Rajapaksa family party had managed to win 145 of the 225 seats. That is, the Rajapaksa family, which was given a two-thirds majority in the elections by the people of Sri Lanka, was ousted from the government in 28 days. This news reveals three things.
The first thing is that there is nothing stronger than democracy.
Second, a government run by one family which is corrupt in nature can destroy a nation.
Third, debt can be extremely dangerous for any nation.