Lemon yellow and light green colour flags fly high everywhere, and the office appears unusually busy. The party’s presidential candidate and opposition leader Sajith Premadasa walks in, with a smile on his face and folded hands. Sajith spoke exclusively with THE WEEK, explaining the importance of the upcoming election, his promise to abolish the executive presidency and his views on ties with India. Edited excerpts:
Q/ How crucial is this election for the people of Sri Lanka? Why do you think they should vote for you?
A/ It is a pivotal moment in Sri Lanka’s history. The people will have an opportunity to express their opinion and to provide their mandate for a new approach, for a pathbreaking vision and for changing the old guard. The country has gone through a terrible human and economic tragedy. Catastrophe has engulfed the whole country, affecting children, mothers, youth, everyone. Except for the super rich, every strata of society has been affected. This election will give an opportunity for the people to make a choice against the old approach of protecting the rich and the crony capitalists. Our approach would be to serve all 22 million people of our country. The people also have a choice [of not opting for] extreme socialism and Marxism, which has not proven to be a viable model in modern governance. I am very confident that they will make the right choice.
Q/ You contested the 2019 election as well. Is there a change in the mindset of the people?
Esta historia es de la edición September 22, 2024 de THE WEEK India.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor ? Conectar
Esta historia es de la edición September 22, 2024 de THE WEEK India.
Comience su prueba gratuita de Magzter GOLD de 7 días para acceder a miles de historias premium seleccionadas y a más de 9,000 revistas y periódicos.
Ya eres suscriptor? Conectar
How Modi learned to love the bomb
Narendra Modi is the first Indian prime minister ever to not be on record on nuclear disarmament. His attention has been devoted to building our nuclear capabilities and delivery systems without mentioning universal disarmament.
Seats for AAP? Not even a needlepoint
One of the most dramatic scenes of the Mahabharat is the Bhagavad doot, wherein Krishna goes to the court of Dhritarashtra seeking the forfeited kingdom back for the Pandavas. When that is denied, he seeks five villages for the five brothers. That denied, he seeks one village for all five. No, says the arrogant Duryodhan, not even a needlepoint of land. The road to Kurukshetra began there.
Chase For The Mace
The next three years throw up a gamut of challenges for Indian cricket; winning the World Test Championship is the most important
Two-horse race
Can the NC-Congress alliance reshape the future of Jammu and Kashmir?
Man-eaters don't spare women
Critics say Narendra Modi’s decade-long rule has been one of jobless growth. Factories produced more, companies earned more, owners profited more, the government earned more; but fewer hands were hired, or those who were hired got work for fewer days. Putting the last two together, economists said the Indian economy generated fewer ‘man-days’.
Decolonising the mindset
The vision of a Viksit Bharat hinges on India T breaking from the shackles of a colonial mindset and embodying the freedom of being unapologetically Indian. The laws of any nation are the cornerstone of its growth. The legal system offers the stability and adaptability essential for a country to thrive. The laws must be simple to understand and specific in their consequence.
The making of India's Mr Difficult Words
When my publishers at Aleph invited me to put together a book on words and language, I hesitated for a brief moment.
Couture's creepy corridors
If one is spending a summer in New York, any summer in New York, an absolute must-do is to spend an afternoon at the city’s Metropolitan Museum of Art, on the edge of Central Park, just gawking in gobsmacked awe at the annual fashion exhibition the museum’s Costume Institute puts together.
Stree 2 has given us hope
The unprecedented success of Stree 2 is the best news we have had in the recent times and with an unabashedly feminist agenda, has comprehensively out-performed Sandeep Reddy Vanga's toxic masculine star-studded Animal at the box office is (to me, at least) kind of the cinematic equivalent of Awadhesh Prasad winning Ayodhya-it redeems my faith in the inherent decency of Indians.
BRANDS BEYOND RAMPS
Whether through carpets, fragrances or home interiors, Indian couturiers are defying their own limits
