Saturday 8th June, 2024

It was with shock and dismay that we received the news about death threats to COPF (Committee on Public Finance) Chairman Dr. Harsha de Silva over the ongoing parliamentary probe into the on-arrival visa scam. Dr. de Silva yesterday told Speaker Mahinda Yapa Abeywardena, in Parliament, that he was facing death threats and intimidation, and it was incumbent upon Parliament to ensure his safety. He stopped short of naming names, but revealed that some ruling party MPs were among those who had ganged up against him. The Speaker only said there had been no complaint, and he would look into the matter.

The SLPP-UNP government has been doing everything in its power to have all parliamentary committees under its thumb. The COPE (Committee on Public Enterprises), which once helped restore public faith in the legislature by exposing state sector corruption, has now become a mere appendage of the incumbent regime, thanks to the appointment of SLPP MP Rohitha Abeygunawardena as its Chairman. The SLPP-UNP combine also tried to oust COPF Chairman Dr. de Silva, but in vain. However, it knows more than one way to shoe a horse.

The COPF, under Dr. de Silva’s chairmanship, has been a thorn in the side of the government, which is struggling to cover up numerous corrupt deals. Dr. de Silva yesterday told Parliament that he found it extremely difficult to function as the COPF head due to severe resource constraints his committee was facing; he himself had to pay the salaries of some of his staff members besides burning the midnight oil.

The sheer workload he had to cope with as the COPF chief had taken its toll on his health, he said, informing the Speaker that he was at the end of his tether, and at times thought of resigning from the COPF. This is exactly what the government wants him to do; resource squeezes and threats are aimed at making him quit.

On 26 May, Dr. de Silva revealed, in an ‘X’ post, that the COPF had uncovered some vital information about the visa scam and it would reveal everything after its final meeting on the issue; the COPF was committed to exposing the truth behind the controversial tender, he added. In an editorial comment on 27 May, we warned him.

While thanking him for his bold stand, we pointed out that by making such a statement, he had thrown caution to the wind, and become a marked target, with the government making an all-out effort to delay the COPF investigation lest the truth should come out much to the detriment of its interests in this election year. Unfortunately, what was feared has come about; Dr. de Silva is complaining of death threats and government moves to strangulate the COPF financially to derail its investigations.

Dr. de Silva’s predicament exemplifies the fate that befalls the few good men and women in Parliament. It is hoped that all those who seek an end to the state sector corruption will rally behind Dr. de Silva, and bring pressure to bear on the government to ensure his safety. Let Dr. de Silva be urged to reveal the names of those who have issued threats, veiled or otherwise, to him and are trying to scuttle the COPF probes.

Thursday 6th June, 2024

The outcome of India’s parliamentary election (2024) has led to a ‘perspective ambiguity’. Prime Minister Narendra Modi lost no time in declaring victory for the BJP-led NDA alliance, which secured 293 seats in the 543-member Parliament, but he must be a worried man. The BJP is short of 32 seats to form a government under its own steam; it has lost 63 seats or about 20% of its parliamentary strength. It had 303 seats in the previous Parliament, and that number has dropped to 240.

Modi has become the second Indian Prime Minister to win a third term. The first PM to do so was Jawaharlal Nehru. But Nehru won an outright majority in Parliament in 1962; Modi has had to depend on smaller parties in his alliance to retain his hold on power. Modi must be reeling from a sharp drop in his victory margin in his own constituency, Varanasi; it has decreased to 152,000 from 480,000 in 2019 whereas Modi’s bete noire, Rahul Gandhi, won Raebareli by a staggering 390,000 votes.

Modi, who reigned supreme with 303 seats in the previous Parliament, is now dependent on parties such as Nitish Kumar’s JD-U and Chandrababu Naidu’s TDP to form a government. He has had to lead an alliance of strange bedfellows. Both Kumar and Naidu were bitter critics of Modi. Kumar helped form the oppositional alliance, the INDIA bloc, before switching his allegiance to PM Modi. Naidu also closed ranks with the BJP in the run-up to the election. These politicians have been described as extremely ambitious and highly unpredictable, and whether Modi will be able to manage them and consolidate his grip on the NDA alliance remains to be seen. They will demand plum ministerial posts in return for their support. The TDP is said to be eyeing Transport and Health portfolios! That is the name of the game in coalition politics, where it is not uncommon for the tail to wag the dog, so to speak. These two political leaders are however not the only problem Modi will have to contend with. The next five years will feel like an eternity for PM Modi.

Nothing would have been more shocking for the BJP than its defeat in Uttar Pradesh’s Faizabad constituency, where the Ram Mandir has been built. Modi may have thought he would be able to win the Lok Sabha election hands down after the consecration of that temple, which became a centrepiece of the BJP’s election campaign. The BJP lost that seat to the Samajwadi Party! Modi must be disappointed that the Ram Mandir hype failed to trigger a massive wave of support for his party. This particular defeat signifies a massive setback for the BJP’s ethno-religious agenda.

Modi’s divisive election campaign failed to yield the desired result. The BJP’s failure to secure an outright majority could be attributed to a host of factors, some of them being the suppression of the Opposition, the arrogance of power, chronic unemployment, and the rising cost of living. The BJP also did not care to reimage itself in a positive light to attract the youth.

Modi will hereafter see the Congress-led INDIA bloc with 223 seats, in his rearview mirror. The Congress (99 seats) and its allies have eaten into the BJP support base considerably, but they have a long way to go before being able to capture power.

The bumpy ride ahead for the BJP-led coalition government to be formed may improve the INDIA bloc’s chances of bettering their electoral performance and turning the tables on the BJP and its allies in time to come. Modi will have a lot to worry about in his third term.

Wednesday 5th June, 2024

The SLFP shows signs of being on the fast track to oblivion. The Battle of the Blues, as it were, has got down and dirty, with the Sirisena and Chandrika factions tightening their grip on each other’s jugular. They have left the blue party red in tooth and claw. One might argue that what is unfolding at Darley Road has the trappings of a third-rate soap opera with a kudzu or ridiculously complicated plot owing to numerous appointments to top posts, endless protests, slanging matches, countless court cases and interim injunctions. Wheels within wheels, one might say. The ongoing struggle for the custody of the SLFP reminds us of Brecht’s Caucasian Chalk Circle.

While on the subject of the Brechtian theatre, President Ranil Wickremesinghe once claimed that he found himself in the same predicament as Grusha, the intrepid servant, who crosses a precariously hanging rope bridge carrying a child, in the Caucasian Chalk Circle. Various views have been expressed about the real beneficiary of Wickremesinghe’s daring mission, but what is of relevance and import, in our book, is that the Sirisena faction of the SLFP has accused Wickremesinghe of having a hand in the unfolding Darley Road drama. It claims that its rival faction is trying to grab the party leadership and hitch their wagon to the UNP in time for the upcoming presidential election.

Those who belong to the warring factions of the SLFP would have the public believe that they are fighting hard to save their party. But, in our view, the need is in fact for the party to be saved from both sides that are driven by self-interest and expediency more than anything else. If they had an iota of love for their party, they would make peace and unite forthwith because the next presidential election is only a few months away. Instead, they are engaged in a see-saw legal battle, which is like a game of Snakes and Ladders, and on watching its twists and turns, one feels like repeating Mr. Bumble’s famous words in Oliver Twist—’the law is an ass’.

An interim order issued by the Colombo District Court against Minister of Justice Dr. Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe was extended on Monday, preventing him from functioning as the SLFP Chairman. Former President Maithripala Sirisena, a seasoned political escapologist, has wriggled out of the politico-legal mess of his own making at the expense of Minister Rajapakshe, who has been left pulling political chestnuts out of the fire.

The blame for the SLFP’s debilitation should be apportioned to Sirisena, his associates, and their rival faction led by former President Chandrika Bandaranaike Kumaratunga. They have severally undertaken the seemingly Sisyphean task of rebuilding the SLFP, which they jointly ruined in 2015 by causing a crippling split. If Sirisena had properly led the SLFP instead of trying to build another political dynasty or allowed someone capable of turning it around to take over its leadership, it would have been able to attract the disillusioned SLPP MPs and supporters and recover lost ground. His rivals who are out for his blood are also not equal to the daunting task of revitalising the SLFP.

The SLFP and its offshoot, the SLPP, have become politically bankrupt thanks to their leaders while the UNP is showing signs of slow recovery and its breakaway group, the SJB, is said to be within the hailing distance of state power.

The drama at Darley Road has reached the chalk circle test, with Citizen Perea playing Azdak, the scrivener-turned unorthodox judge. There is no Grusha in this scene; a dramatic plot twist has happened, and instead of Grusha there is an impersonator who is as ruthless, vain and uncaring as Natella. Both these characters, blinded by greed and rage, refuse to give in, and the SLFP runs the risk of being torn asunder. Thus, the Darley Road drama will have a tragic ending unlike the original, genre-defying Brechtian play, where the compassionate foster mother lets go of the child lest he should suffer injury.