Mahinda Rajapaksa who resigned from the Premiership of Sri Lanka on Saturday to make way for the re-appointment of Ranil Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister has vowed to come back with voters’ support to “bring forces opposed to the country to their knees.” Wickremesinghe would be sworn-in as Prime Minister on Sunday along with a 30-member cabinet. In his five-page parting statement on Saturday, Rajapaksa warned that the UNF government and Sri Lanka will be held hostage to the divisive, separatist and anti- national agenda of the Tamil National Alliance (TNA).…
Colombo, Dec 15 (newsin.asia) – Sri Lanka’s challenged Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa resigned from his premiership on Saturday, paving way for a new government to be established under President Maithripala Sirisena. Rajapaksa signed his resignation letter, surrounded by his party members at his official residence in capital Colombo, television footage showed. Shehan Semasinghe, a lawmaker, […]…
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s hectic travel schedule and his government’s advertising blitz over the past four-and-a-half years have cost Indian taxpayers about 65.9 billion rupees (US$ 920 million). The globe-trotting prime minister’s 84 trips around the world cost roughly $280 million, while the government spent US$ 640 million on promoting Modi’s flagship projects and achievements, according to new government data, writes Iain Marlow in Bloombergquint…
Realizing that it had failed to keep its promise to usher in “Achchey Din” (Good Days); that there had jobless growth; and that certain major decisions like demonetization had backfired; BJP governments, both in the Center and the States, had revived the Hindutva movement to capture the imagination of the voters. But the results of the recently concluded State Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Telangana and Mizoram showed that economic and regional issues had upstaged “Hindutva” – the ideology of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) which is based on Hindu-majoritarian dominance over religious minorities, particularly the Muslims. …
Colombo, Dec 14 (newsin.asia) – Sri Lanka’s challenged Prime Minister, Mahinda Rajapaksa will step down from his premiership on Saturday after the Supreme Court earlier Friday continued a suspension order on him and his cabinet from continuing in office. Rajapaksa’s son and Parliamentarian from the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna, Namal Rajapaksa said that his father […]…
Colombo, Dec 14 – Colombo International Container Terminals (CICT) has announced a significant equipment addition that will enhance the terminal’s deep water capacity and make Colombo one of the few ports in Asia capable of handling vessels of 22,000 + TEUs. The Company said the enhancement encompasses the addition of two new mega Quay Gantry […]…
Colombo, Dec 14 (newsin.asia) – The following are the foreign exchange rates against the Sri Lankan rupee released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka on Friday. Buying Selling Australian Dollar 126.31 131.73 Canadian Dollar 131.95 136.90 Chinese Yuan (Renminbi) 25.44 26.67 Euro 200.23 207.39 Japanese Yen 1.5536 1.6113 Singapore […]…
Yusuf Molla, a farmer in Rajshahi's Tanore, has at least 200 rare and almost extinct varieties of paddy in his collection that he has developed over the years out of love for the crop. During a visit last month, this correspondent found 77 sections in Yusuf's land. Each section had a signboard carrying the name of the variety cultivated there. Each variety has a distinct texture, colour, smell, and taste.…
It was the fond hope of Sri Lankans that a Supreme Court ruling on the constitutionality of the dissolution of the Sri Lankan parliament would usher in a truce between President Maithripala Sirisena and the ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and bring the curtains down on the standoff between the Executive Presidency and the parliament. But the court’s ruling that the dissolution of parliament by the President was unconstitutional, has not resolved the conflict between Sirisena and Wickremesinghe or between the institution of the Executive Presidency and the legislature. President Sirisena has vowed that he will continue to fight Wickemesinghe even if he continues to enjoy majority support in parliament. …
Sources close to the President told newsin.asia that this means that Sirisena will continue to conduct cabinet meetings as the Head of the Government, but will not participate in its decision-making process. However, he will continue to exercise his powers as the constitutional Executive President, Head of Government and Head of State.Given the nature of the Sri Lankan constitution which endows the Executive President with vast and decisive powers, an Executive President can put spokes in the wheel of the cabinet and countermand its decisions.…
But Sirisena has a plan to continue his resistance to Wickremesinghe. After hearing the judgment on Thursday he told his Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) that if he has to appoint Wickremesinghe he will not participate in the government's decision-making process but will continue to carry out his responsibilities as the Executive President. This could mean that the Executive Presidency will be pitted against the Prime Minister and his cabinet. An Executive President could put spokes in the cabinet's wheel, forcing the government to come to a grinding halt. But the scenario will be radically different if the United National Front puts forward Sajith Premadasa as its Prime Ministerial candidate, sources close to the President said.…
Colombo, Dec 13 (newsin.asia) – Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court, on Thursday, ruled against President Maithripala Sirisena’s decision to dissolve Parliament and conduct a snap Parliamentary Election in early January. A seven judge bench headed by Chief Justice Nalin Perera, delivered the…
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost 180 seats that it won in 2013, and the Congress gained 162 across three state assemblies--Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Chhattisgarh--as results were declared on December 11, 2018, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of electoral data. In 2013, the BJP won 377 seats and the Congress 118 in these three states. The BJP had no seats in Mizoram in 2013, and this is the first state election for Telangana, which was created in 2014. This means the BJP lost 48% of the seats it won in 2013, and the Congress gained 137%.…
The petitioner alleged that first Respondent Ranil Wickremesinghe held, as at the time of the Parliamentary Elections held on August 17, 2015, a financial interest in several contracts entered into by public corporations on behalf of the Republic of Sri Lanka with his family company “Lake House Printers and Publishers PLC”, by virtue of his having been a major shareholder of the said company.…
Colombo, Dec 12 (newsin.asia) – Sri Lanka’s Parliament, on Wednesday passed a vote of confidence on ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe with 117 lawmakers in the 225 member Parliament voting in favor of it. The vote was taken as Mahinda…
Colombo, Dec 12 (newsin.asia) – Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court, on Wednesday re-fixed for Friday, a petition filed by challenged Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa over an interim order which temporarily suspended him and his cabinet from functioning as a government, local…
Hindutvic rhetoric will have to be matched by performance on the economic front if it is to be effective because Hindutva can only be icing on the cake as past experience shows.But extremist and ideologically driven parties like the BJP do not set out of the established line and think anew. Therefore the BJP will continue to favor the big corporations; hope that the middle classes will be taken care of by mesmerizing Hindutvic and nationalistic rhetoric; and the farmers will be silenced by promises of higher Minimum Support Prices - all policies which have failed to deliver the goods.…
But Sirisena has a plan to continue his resistance to Wickremesinghe. After hearing the judgment on Thursday he told his Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP) that if he has to appoint Wickremesinghe he will not participate in the government's decision-making process but will continue to carry out his responsibilities as the Executive President. This could mean that the Executive Presidency will be pitted against the Prime Minister and his cabinet. An Executive President could put spokes in the cabinet's wheel, forcing the government to come to a grinding halt. But the scenario will be radically different if the United National Front puts forward Sajith Premadasa as its Prime Ministerial candidate, sources close to the President said.…
Colombo, Dec 13 (newsin.asia) – Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court, on Thursday, ruled against President Maithripala Sirisena’s decision to dissolve Parliament and conduct a snap Parliamentary Election…
The petitioner alleged that first Respondent Ranil Wickremesinghe held, as at the time of the Parliamentary Elections held on August 17, 2015, a financial interest in several contracts entered into by public corporations on behalf of the Republic of Sri Lanka with his family company “Lake House Printers and Publishers PLC”, by virtue of his having been a major shareholder of the said company.…
Colombo, Dec 12 (newsin.asia) – Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court, on Wednesday re-fixed for Friday, a petition filed by challenged Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa over an…
Quite a number of Chinese ceramics were found, providing significant evidence of trade links between Sri Lanka and China.
The excavated artefacts in Kayts, Jaffna, are mainly Chinese ceramics, accompanied by a few local and Southeast or South Asian pottery. The Chinese ware can be dated to the second half of the 11th century and early 12th century, during the rule of the Northern Song dynasty in China, Chinese archaeologist Chen Jie told Kelum Bandara of Daily Mirror..…
In an official statement, India said: "We condole the loss of lives in this dastardly attack. There can be no justification whatsoever for any act of terrorism. The perpetrators of this heinous attack should be brought to justice expeditiously," said an official statement issued by the ministry.
It added that "such terrorist attacks only strengthens the resolve of the international community to combat terrorism in all its forms and manifestations."…
"The trade imbalance between China and the Maldives is so huge that nobody would think of an FTA between such parties," said Mohamed Nasheed, the chief of the Maldivian Democratic Party, which leads the ruling federal alliance. "China is not buying anything from us. It is a one-way treaty."…
The US-led IMF had threatened to ask Pakistan to cut down on projects linked to the China-funded multi-billion dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which Washington describes as a “debt trap”, and the Trump administration had clearly stated that it will not disburse funds to help Pakistan if the objective is basically to repay its debt to China, thus forcing Pakistan to look out for financial packages from Saudi Arabia and China.…
This was amply evident at the Bangladesh stall in the Xmas Charity Bazaar held at the plush Galle Face Hotel in Colombo on Sunday. The Sri Lankan capital’s elite, local as well as expatriate, made a beeline to the Bangladeshi stall manned by the staff of the High Commission, to lap up the items on sale. “In just four hours most of the articles were sold out,” gushed Riaz Hamidullah, High Commissioner of Bangladesh.…
In 2014, the elections were boycotted by the main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), led by Khaleda Zia. But this time round the BNP is going to contest and with gusto. In December 2018, there is going to be a new force in alliance with the BNP – the Jatika Oikya Front (JOF) headed by Dr.Kamal Hossain, Bangladesh’s first Foreign Minister. He is a new face without a baggage of corruption, and with a record of participating in the liberation struggle, writes P.K.Balachandran in Daily Mirror..…
Five years after the High Court ruled that the Jamaat-e-Islami’s status as a political party be revoked, the Election Commission has executed the orders in a gazette. The gazette got delayed because of the delay in getting the full verdict, EC Secretary Helal Uddin Ahmed told bdnews24.com on Monday. The commission could not publish the gazette until now also because an appeal against the High Court orders was being heard, he said.…
South Asia’s multi-religious countries, namely India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, started off with a noble wish to be ‘secular’ and keep religion out of the business of the State.But it did not take long for all the three South Asian States to regress from secularism and begin to be overly influenced by the majority religious community. …
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lost 180 seats that it won in 2013, and the Congress gained 162 across three state assemblies--Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh (MP) and Chhattisgarh--as results were declared on December 11, 2018, according to an IndiaSpend analysis of electoral data. In 2013, the BJP won 377 seats and the Congress 118 in these three states. The BJP had no seats in Mizoram in 2013, and this is the first state election for Telangana, which was created in 2014. This means the BJP lost 48% of the seats it won in 2013, and the Congress gained 137%.…
Hindutvic rhetoric will have to be matched by performance on the economic front if it is to be effective because Hindutva can only be icing on the cake as past experience shows.But extremist and ideologically driven parties like the BJP do not set out of the established line and think anew. Therefore the BJP will continue to favor the big corporations; hope that the middle classes will be taken care of by mesmerizing Hindutvic and nationalistic rhetoric; and the farmers will be silenced by promises of higher Minimum Support Prices - all policies which have failed to deliver the goods.…
Since Narendra Modi came to power in May 2014, a series of top government economic personnel have quit. The list is long considering the fact that the Modi regime is only four years old. Those who have quit so far are two Reserve Bank of India (RBI) Governors, Raghuram Rajan and Urjit Patel; a Vice Chairman of the NITI Aayog, Arvind Panagariya, and a Chief Economic Adviser, Arvind Subramanian. Anyone watching the Modi government’s handling of economic affairs would know that the stated reasons for quitting and the sweetly worded tweets were but attempts to hide the ugly truth that these eminent men were unable to work under Modi’s crassly political agenda set by the Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh (RSS). …
“Pakistan has made its state an Islamic State. If they have to stay together with India, then they have to develop as a secular state. If they’re willing to become secular like us, then they seem to have an opportunity.” Gen.Bipin Rawat said at a function to review the passing out parade of 135th course of the National Defence Academy in Pune.…
Colombo, Dec 12 (newsin.asia) – Sri Lanka’s Parliament, on Wednesday passed a vote of confidence on ousted Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe with 117 lawmakers in…
Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Wednesday performed the groundbreaking of the long-awaited corridor connecting Gurdwara Darbar Sahib in Kartarpur area of Narowal district to Dera Baba Nanak in India’s Gurdaspur district. While India sent two Union Ministers, Harsimrat Kaur Badal, Minister for Housing Hardeep S. Puri, and Indian Punjab Minister of Local Government, Tourism, Cultural Affairs, Navjot Singh Sidhu it also castigated the Pakistan Prime Minister for mentioning the dispute over Kashmir in his speech at the function.…
At the grassroots level, the start of the construction of the "Kartarpur Corridor" linking two Sikh shrines across the India-Pakistan border generated much bonhomie and hope of India-Pakistan rapprochement. But as in the past, the positive steps taken to build bridges between the two countries have been vitiated by partisan considerations and the raising of issues which could only derail any progress towards peace and understanding that might be made as a result of the corridor.…
Speaking on Express News program “Takrar” on Tuesday, the Indian cricketer turned Punjab Minister Navjot Singh Sidhu said that the Pakistani Premier Imran Khan will grow stronger by facing even tougher tests in the future. “I know him for a long time. He is a brave, honest and empathetic man which made him join the tough field of politics." Imran's name will be in the first page of history books for opening the Kartarpur corridor, a boon to the Sikhs of India, Sidhu said.…
Colombo, Dec 14 – Colombo International Container Terminals (CICT) has announced a significant equipment addition that will enhance the terminal’s deep water capacity and make Colombo one of the few ports in Asia capable of handling vessels of 22,000 +…
Colombo, Dec 14 (newsin.asia) – The following are the foreign exchange rates against the Sri Lankan rupee released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka on Friday. Buying Selling Australian Dollar 126.31 131.73 Canadian Dollar 131.95 136.90 Chinese Yuan…
Colombo, Dec 13 (newsin.asia) – The following are the foreign exchange rates against the Sri Lankan rupee released by the Central Bank of Sri Lanka on Thursday. Buying Selling Australian Dollar 126.86 132.29 Canadian Dollar 131.89 136.85 Chinese Yuan…
