India wanted me to stay as Prez in ’22, hints Gotabaya in his book

COLOMBO: Gotabaya Rajapaksa, ousted as the president of Sri Lanka in a popular public uprising in 2022, on Thursday hinted that India was keen on his continuation despite the growing public discontent against him at the behest of certain Western powers.

“There was, in fact, a major foreign power that was insisting that I should not resign and they had demonstrated their willingness to do whatever it takes to keep Sri Lanka with essentials,” Rajapaksa, 74, writes in his book without naming India.

Titled ‘The Conspiracy to oust me from the Presidency,’ Rajapaksa’s book was out for sale starting Thursday but there was no official book launch. Rajapaksa’s resignation and fleeing away from the country to the Maldives in mid-July 2022 came after India had extended a credit line with assistance worth $4 billion when Sri Lanka’s economy went bankrupt with long queues for essentials and fuel for four months preceding this development. His book does have a reference to this critical aid received from India. “Yet I resigned from the presidency to give the people of Sri Lanka some respite,” the former president says in the book, adding that after two years of Covid lockdowns, closure of schools and loss of employment, the cost of living increases. “I resigned in order to put an end to the political conspiracies and sabotage that was making life intolerable for everyone,” he said, adding, “It would be extremely naive for anyone to claim that there was no foreign hand in the moves made to oust me from power.”

“Determined foreign powers and certain local parties were financing and organising violent protests and sabotage for my removal and they would not have stopped so long as I had remained in power,” the former president writes.

Rajapaksa’s book ‘The Conspiracy to oust me from the Presidency, was out for sale on Thursday but there was no official launch