Sri Lanka’s former finance minister Basil Rajapaksa, brother of president Gotabaya Rajapaksa, resigned from parliament on Thursday amid the country’s worst economic crisis in decades.
“From today, I will not be involved in any government activities, but I cannot and will not step away from politics,” he told reporters. “The aim is to allow someone else to be appointed to parliament in my place from the party.”
Basil, however, refuted claims that he had failed to control Sri Lanka’s economic fallout.
“I was the person to send the first letter to the [International Monetary Fund] after becoming finance minister. It is the work I started that is now being taken forward,” he said. “I have no regrets.”…