{"id":120390,"date":"2014-02-23T00:35:07","date_gmt":"2014-02-22T19:05:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?p=120390"},"modified":"2014-03-04T00:02:50","modified_gmt":"2014-03-03T18:32:50","slug":"namal-rajapaksa-building-a-cult-of-personality-in-the-north","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/index.php\/namal-rajapaksa-building-a-cult-of-personality-in-the-north\/","title":{"rendered":"Namal Rajapaksa: Building A Cult Of Personality In The North"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span style=\"font-family: georgia, serif;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Namal+Rajapaksa&amp;x=6&amp;y=5\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Namal Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a>, President <a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/?s=Mahinda+Rajapaksa&amp;x=11&amp;y=4\"><span style=\"text-decoration: underline;\">Mahinda Rajapaksa<\/span><\/a>&#8216;s eldest son and member of parliament from the Hambantota District regularly undertakes tours to the former rebel strongholds of Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu to engage in welfare activities.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: georgia, serif;\">A few hours ago the young Parliamentarian tweeted that he had just held a book distribution drive for school children in Kilinochchi and Mullaitivu.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: georgia, serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: georgia, serif;\">On his official Twitter account, Rajapaksa tweeted:\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: georgia, serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"font-family: georgia, serif;\"><span style=\"color: #292f33;\"><b>&#8220;<\/b><\/span>Distributing school books in Mullativ and Killinochchi. I do this every year &amp; its amazing to see their smiles&#8221;<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #292f33; font-family: georgia, serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #292f33; font-family: georgia, serif;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/NR-tomorrow-political-leadership.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright  wp-image-120391\" alt=\"NR tomorrow political leadership\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/NR-tomorrow-political-leadership.jpg\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/NR-tomorrow-political-leadership.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/NR-tomorrow-political-leadership-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 480px) 100vw, 480px\" \/><\/a>Namal Rajapaksa also posted a picture on his twitter feed of scores of smiling school children and the school books awaiting to be presented.\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #292f33; font-family: georgia, serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #292f33;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, serif;\">Closer scrutiny of the picture reveals that every cover of the school books are emblazoned with pictures of MP Namal Rajapaksa in various outfits and poses. Some of the book covers feature pictures of President Rajapaksa at an event.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #292f33;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, serif;\">\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><span style=\"color: #292f33;\"><span style=\"font-family: georgia, serif;\">Rajapaksa who is the Government&#8217;s chief strategist of the Southern Provincial Council election to be held in March, is the most sought after endorsement by UPFA candidates. He is the particular preference of sons and daughters of ruling party politicos who are in the fray, namely Malsha Kumaratunga and Udara Lokubandara among several others.<\/span><\/span><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><a href=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/screenshot-twitter.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-120394\" alt=\"screenshot twitter\" src=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/screenshot-twitter.jpg\" width=\"619\" height=\"497\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/screenshot-twitter.jpg 619w, https:\/\/www.colombotelegraph.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/screenshot-twitter-300x240.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 619px) 100vw, 619px\" \/><\/a><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n<div><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p> [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":22,"featured_media":120391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1,6969,2375],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-120390","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-colombotelegraph","category-news","category-popular-stories","category-stories"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.3 - 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