Colombo, August 1 (NIA): Former Sri Lankan President Mahinda Rajapaksa on Monday accused the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe government of entering into the Economic and Technical Cooperation Agreement (ETCA) with India to give jobs to foreigners and deny jobs to Sri Lankans.
Addressing a massive rally here at Lipton Circus at the end of the Kandy-Colombo long march organized by the Joint Opposition (JO) which he heads, Rajapaksa said that the persecution of the opposition through prosecutions will not ensure the survival of the Sirisena-Wickremesinghe regime.
Rajapaksa charged that the government, while pretending to give “Good Governance”, is getting unpopular even though it has been in power only for a year and eight months. It believes that it can be sustained by conducting investigations against opposition leaders through the misuse of the Bribery Commission and the Financial Crimes Investigation Division. But he and the JO would not be cowed down by this and would continue to fight for the peoples’ rights
He charged that at the behest of foreign powers, the government is planning to prosecute members of the heroic Sri Lankan armed forces for alleged war crimes. The media is being threatened, and farmers are being denied fertilizer subsidy and forced to sell their produce at low prices.
Referring to the administrative and legal steps taken to thwart the Kandy-Colombo march, Rajapaksa said that such impediments will not prevent the opposition from staging more such marches. This march is only a fore runner of others against the government until it is overthrown, Rajapaksa said.
