MP Wimal Weerawansa, enraged over the loss of power, has recently given to the media a list of expenses of Central Bank governor Arjun Mahendran. Weerawansa has here listed out costs for food and beverages, transport, clothes, and given them at the rate of daily expenses.
Mahendran is a Singaporean citizen and a professional banker who manages personal wealth. He has earned wealth for himself before becoming the CB governor. His lifestyle suits the wealth he owns. We wonder as to whether Weerawansa is in his nudity when he makes comments about Mahendran’s clothes. That is because his expensive shirts became a topic when he was a JVP member. At a time when he donated the MP’s salary to the party, he had the money to wear shirts worth Rs. 40,000 while having only a communication centre to his name.
Anyone can understand that Mahendran cannot wear a cloth bought at the Colombo Pettah pavement when he goes to meet the IMF managing director Christine Lagardd or the Bank of England governor Canadian Mark Canrney. Expenses are decided on the basis of the position held and the service carried out. On the other hand, his professional record makes it clear that Mahendran does not need the CB governor position to earn money to spend according to his wishes.
Mahendran draws a Rs. 70,000 salary from the CB, and donates it to the Preethipura orphanage. After the Rajapaksa Draculas drained the Sri Lankan economy’s lifeblood dry, it is being run with the utmost difficulty. The result of paying for that curse is the depreciation of the rupee and the increases in taxes. Mahinda Rajapaksa announced the presidential election with two years of his tenure remaining in order to establish his power before the people came to know that the economy was about to collapse. Weerawansa, who now blames Mahendran for the economic crisis, too, was responsible for that sin, and as a person who would grab anything that comes his way, he is today engaged in cheap politics. Or he is involved in monkey politics to appease the gallery. Managing a central bank is no easy task. Mahendran is involved in that decisive exercise now.
In conclusion, an old story that is related to this matter comes to mind. During the Chandrika Bandaranaike rule, Anura Bandaranaike tabled in parliament a hotel bill of the then foreign minister Lakshman Kadirgarmar. It was a bill for 2,000-odd pound sterling at Dorchester Hotel in London. When Anura questioned about this in an expressive manner, Kadirgarmar replied that he did not go in search of the ministerial position, but that the ministerial position came in search of him. With or without his position, his habitual place of accommodation in London is Dorchester Hotel, he said.
Weerawansa is today troubled by not having powers to use to appease himself. He is trying to express that hatred like the Hanuman with his tail on fire. He will surely have something to say even if Mahendran comes to work wearing a cloth bought from Colombo Pettah pavement and in a three wheeler.
Courtesy – Lankanewsweb
