PM Modi responded to a personal request by Wickremesinghe and launched the island-wide expansion of the 1990 Suwaseriya Emergency Ambulance Service.
Amid the deepening political and economic crisis, 73-year-old Ranil Wickremesinghe, considered close to India, has been sworn in as Prime Minister of Sri Lanka for the sixth time. Ranil Wickremesinghe, who has been in Parliament for 45 years, is widely acknowledged in political circles as a man who can manage the economy with visionary policies.
The lawyer-turned-politician has made a remarkable comeback almost two years after his United National Party (UNP) lost and failed to win a single seat in the general election held in August 2020. However, these are very hard times for the island nation.
Read | Who is Sri Lanka's new PM Ranil Wickremesinghe, taking charge amid its worst economic crisis?
Ranil Wickremesinghe's appointment fills a leadership void as Sri Lanka has not had a government since Monday when Mahinda Rajapaksa stepped down from the post of Prime Minister after violence erupted when his supporters attacked anti-government protesters. He is considered a leader in Sri Lanka who can command international cooperation.
Wickremesinghe has held many important positions during his political career spanning four and a half decades. His maternal grandfather DR Wijewardena published a series of newspapers supporting the independence movement. His paternal grandfather, CG Wickremesinghe, was the seniormost Sri Lankan colonial government servant.
His father, Esmond Wickremesinghe, was an integral part of the post-colonial establishment.
Relationship with India
Ranil Wickremesinghe built close personal ties with India and visited the country on four occasions - October 2016, April 2017, November 2017 and October 2018 during his previous term as Prime Minister. During the same period, Prime Minister Narendra Modi too made two visits to Sri Lanka.
PM Modi responded to a personal request by Wickremesinghe and launched the island-wide expansion of the 1990 Suwaseriya Emergency Ambulance Service in Jaffna in 2018. This free health care service proved to be extremely helpful in Sri Lanka during Covid-19 pandemic.
Ranil Wickremesinghe supported the deal with India on the eastern terminal of Colombo port, which Rajapaksa rejected in 2020, despite opposition from the then President Maithripala Sirisena.
UNP is the oldest party in the country
His party United National Party (UNP) is the oldest party in the country which failed to win a single seat in the 2020 parliamentary elections. This was the first time since 1977 that his party did not get a single seat. Wickremesinghe, who contested from Colombo, a stronghold of the UNP, himself lost.
Later he was able to reach the Parliament through the National List allotted to the UNP on the basis of Gross National Votes.
Political journey
Wickremesinghe, the nephew of Sri Lanka's first acting President Junius Jayawardene was appointed Prime Minister from 1993-1994 for the first time after the assassination of President Ranasinghe Premadasa. He was also the Prime Minister from 2001-2004 when the United National Front won the general election in 2001. But he lost power in 2004, after Chandrika Kumaratunga called for early elections.
During his tenure as prime minister, he initiated peace talks with the LTTE, even offering a power-sharing deal. Kumaratunga and Mahinda Rajapakse accused him of being too soft with the LTTE and giving it too many concessions.
Ranil Wickremesinghe had defeated Mahinda Rajapaksa in the 2015 elections and headed a minority government.
In the year 2018, the then President Sirisena sacked Prime Minister Wickremesinghe and appointed Mahinda Rajapaksa as the new Prime Minister. This move of Sirisena created a constitutional crisis in the country. However, a Supreme Court decision forced President Sirisena to reinstate Wickremesinghe, ending Rajapaksa's brief reign.
Born in 1949 after Sri Lanka gained independence from the British, Wickremesinghe was elected to Parliament in 1977 at the age of 28. He joined the youth league of the United National Party (UNP) while studying at the university. As the youngest minister in Sri Lanka at that time, he held the position of Deputy Foreign Minister under President Jayawardene.
He became the minister of education and served a long stint as the minister of industries under president Ranasinghe Premadasa, where he was instrumental in major changes to the Sri Lankan stock market and attracting foreign investors to the country..
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 "5 things about new Sri Lanka PM Ranil Wickremesinghe")
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