Sri Lanka's former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa ready to renounce US citizenship

Basil Rajapaksa, Sri Lankas former finance minister and the younger brother of ousted president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, said he is ready to renounce his US citizenship, which he believed was an obstacle to his political career and robbing him the opportunity to serve the nation.

Basil Rajapaksa, Sri Lanka's former finance minister and the younger brother of ousted president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, said he is ready to renounce his US citizenship, which he believed was an ''obstacle'' to his political career and robbing him the opportunity to serve the nation. Basil, 71, who is a US passport holder, resigned as Sri Lanka's finance minister in April last year as anti-government protests intensified against severe shortages of fuel, food and other essentials. Consequently, he quit his seat in Parliament in June 2022. ''I am ready to give up my US citizenship if dual citizenship was an obstacle to my future political activities. I am also ready to remove any other legal obstacle so that I can work for my people,'' he said during a television programme on Tuesday. Basil said Ranil Wickremesinghe has achieved the two key requirements for which he was appointed the Sri Lankan President. “Due to the ‘Aragalaya,' we were unable to step outside of our houses and several properties of politicians were attacked and burned down by the public. But Wickremesinghe has changed that situation,” news portal Newswire.lk reported, quoting the former lawmaker and the national organiser of SLPP. Since he assumed power, Wickremesinghe was also able to resolve the key issues of fuel shortages and frequent power cuts, he said. “At present, we are not facing any of those social issues. We believe he is an individual who has the capacity to resolve such issues and he has proven so,” the report quoted him as saying. In July last year, Basil was prevented from leaving Sri Lanka following protests from passengers and officials at the Bandaranaike International Airport here. But in September 2022, Sri Lanka’s Supreme Court permitted Basil to travel to the US to receive medical treatment. Basil's elder brother Gotabaya, formerly a dual citizen of both Sri Lanka and the US, had to give up his US citizenship ahead of the 2019 presidential elections. Mahinda Rajapaksa, the 76-year-old patriarch of the Rajapaksa family has been the country's president and prime minister. He was also forced to resign in May amidst the anti-government protests in the country. The powerful Rajapaksa family has dominated Sri Lankan politics for over two decades.

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