Mahinda’s father, D. A. Rajapaksa, entered politics only after the death of his elder brother, D. M. Rajapaksa. D. M. Rajapaksa was a strong leftist. He entered politics by working to secure the election of Dr S. A. Wickramasinghe, the Communist Party leader who contested the Morawaka seat in the 1931 State Council election. In 1936, D. M. Rajapaksa contested the State Council election from the Hambantota District. In the State Council, he was involved in politics alongside Communist Party leader Dr Wickramasinghe, Lanka Sama Samaja Party leader Dr N. M. Perera, Mahajana Eksath Peramuna leader Philip Gunawardena, Leslie Gunawardena and others.
When he died suddenly in 1945, the story of how his younger brother, D. A. Rajapaksa, entered politics is recorded in the book The Story of the Kurahan Sataka as follows:
“When D. M. Rajapaksa died in 1945, the State Council seat fell vacant. The eyes of the people of Giruwapattuwa turned towards D. A. Rajapaksa, Mahinda’s father. But he told me that he could not go to the State Council. On the final day for submitting nominations, a large crowd from Giruwapattuwa went to the paddy field looking for D. A., carrying the nomination papers with them.
‘I have no use for being a Member of Parliament…’ D. A. said from the paddy field itself. Eventually, because of the persistent pleas of the large crowd that had come from Giruwapattuwa, Mahinda’s father signed the nomination papers right there in the paddy field. D. A. Rajapaksa was elected to the State Council unopposed.”
The Story of the Kurahan Sataka – p. 60
D. A. Rajapaksa became acquainted with S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike while serving in the State Council. It was Bandaranaike who persuaded D. A. Rajapaksa to contest the 1947 Parliamentary General Election under the Elephant symbol. When Bandaranaike went looking for D. A., he was in the paddy field.
“D. A., let us contest under the Elephant…”
When Bandaranaike said this, D. A. replied that he did not have the money to contest an election. Bandaranaike promised to provide D. A. with the money needed for the election and obtained his signature on the nomination papers by placing them on the bonnet of the vehicle in which Bandaranaike had arrived.
“Then why does Ranil say that D. A. was a founding member of the UNP?”
I do not know how Ranil can say that. However, the following is the list of the first Executive Committee members of the UNP. This Executive Committee was elected at Zahira College on 11 September 1948:
- D. S. Senanayake
- S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike
- Sir John Kotelawala
- Sir A. Mahadeva
- T. B. Jayah
- A. R. A. Rasheed
- H. W. Amarasuriya
- Dr C. W. W. Kannangara
- Justin Kotelawala
- Dudley Senanayake
- J. R. Jayewardene
- A. Ratnayake
- E. A. Nugawela
- E. A. P. Wijeratne
- Dr L. A. Rajapaksa
- Dr V. R. Schokman
- S. R. Kanaganayagam
- Sir Cyril de Zoysa
- Susanta de Fonseka
- U. A. Jayasundera
This was the Executive Committee elected at the first UNP convention.
“If D. A. was a founding member, how is it that he was already a Member of Parliament but was not elected to the Executive Committee?”
On that day, a 50-member Executive Council was also elected. The first name on that Executive Council was N. Artigala, while the final name was Mudali D. S. Abeyratne. D. A.’s name does not appear among those fifty names either.
However, D. A. Rajapaksa’s name appears on the list of conveners of the inaugural meeting of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party held on 21 August 1951.
“Does that mean D. A. was not a UNPer?”
D. A. was not a UNPer. D. A. and his brother D. M. Rajapaksa were leftists. When Bandaranaike could no longer remain in the UNP Government and moved into the Opposition, D. A. followed Bandaranaike because the UNP was an unfamiliar and foreign place to him.
After leaving the UNP Government, Bandaranaike convened the inaugural meeting on 2 September 1951 to establish a new party called the Sri Lanka Freedom Party. The announcement of the meeting was published in all the newspapers in Sri Lanka on 21 August 1951. The names of the conveners were listed in alphabetical order. According to the English alphabetical order, D. A. Rajapaksa’s name appeared as number 36.
D. A. was one of the first members of the inaugural meeting of the SLFP. Yet, after Bandaranaike won the 1956 General Election and became Prime Minister, D. A., who had followed Bandaranaike when he left the UNP and moved into the Opposition, was not given a Cabinet portfolio. He was given only a Deputy Ministerial position—the post of Deputy Minister of Lands and Land Development.
D. A. received a Cabinet portfolio only in the government of Dahanayake, who became Prime Minister following Bandaranaike’s assassination. Dahanayake appointed him Minister of Lands and Land Development.
He was defeated in the March 1960 General Election. Although the SLFP won the July 1960 General Election under the leadership of Mrs Bandaranaike, when she formed the government, she did not include D. A. in the Cabinet, despite the fact that he had followed her husband when he left the Government and went into the Opposition. He was not even given a Deputy Ministerial position.
In the 1960–65 government, Mrs Bandaranaike appointed him Deputy Chairman of Committees of Parliament and later appointed him Deputy Speaker.
D. A. was unfortunately defeated in the 1965 General Election. He died in 1967.
After D. A.’s death, Mrs Bandaranaike went to Tangalle to find a member of the Rajapaksa family to take over the electorate organiser’s position left vacant by D. A. She asked D. A.’s wife, Dandina, to give her their eldest son, Chamal Rajapaksa.
But Dandina said that she could not send Chamal into politics. The reason was that he was employed in the police. She said that he was the one supporting the family and that they could not sacrifice his secure employment for the uncertainty of politics.
“If you want, I can give you the second boy…” Dandina said.
The second boy was Mahinda Rajapaksa.
This is the story of D. A. Rajapaksa.
Although D. A. Rajapaksa was a committed SLFP-er, he did not occupy a major position even within the SLFP. Although his son Mahinda became President of the country and leader of the SLFP, there was no statue of D. A. at the SLFP headquarters on Darley Road.
Mahinda erected a statue of D. A. in Hambantota only after 2010. However, Mahinda never placed a statue of D. A. at the SLFP headquarters or garlanded it during the SLFP anniversary celebrations.
“So how did Ranil at Sirikotha develop a love for D. A. that D. A.’s own sons—Mahinda, Gotabaya and Basil—did not have?”
“How did Sirikotha develop a love for D. A. that Darley Road did not have?”
“Then why didn’t Ranil make Namal Prime Minister and contest the presidential election?”
“Why didn’t Ranil put Namal forward for the presidential election and withdraw from the presidential race?”
That is something to ask Ranil.
At that time, the Bandaranaikes and the Rajapaksas referred to the UNP as their relatives’ party. In English, they called the UNP the “Uncles’ Nephews Party”.
Now, whether Ranil wants the UNP to be called Namal’s party or the “United Namal’s Party” is something we do not know.
