-By LeN Political Correspondent
(Lanka-e-News -13.Nov.2025, 11.30 PM) When the son of a former president calls an anti-government rally and no one significant turns up, it is not a protest — it is a public obituary. On *21 November, Namal Rajapaksa, heir to the once-mighty Rajapaksa dynasty, is preparing to lead an “anti-government people’s rally” in Nugegoda . What was conceived as a show of strength against Sri Lanka’s **National People’s Power (NPP)* government is now being widely described, even by sympathetic analysts, as a *political suicide mission*.
Once hailed as the youthful face of the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and the presumed successor to his father, former President *Mahinda Rajapaksa*, Namal is now fighting irrelevance — and possibly criminal prosecution. With his family under multiple corruption investigations and the NPP government consolidating both domestic and international legitimacy, Namal’s rally risks being remembered not as an uprising, but as a self-inflicted collapse.
According to organisers, Namal had personally invited the main opposition party, the *Samagi Jana Balawegaya (SJB)*, to join the rally as a “united front against authoritarianism.” The invitation was swiftly — and publicly — declined.
SJB officials told *Lanka-e-News that they would not align themselves with “a family tainted by corruption and implicated in economic collapse.” One senior SJB strategist added, “We will not march with those who bankrupted the country.”
Namal’s desperation for cross-party legitimacy has exposed just how isolated the once-dominant Rajapaksas have become. In 2010, the Rajapaksa name could summon hundreds of thousands. In 2025, it barely summons curiosity.
In the absence of the mainstream opposition, Namal has turned to what political observers call a *“coalition of irrelevance”* — a loose alliance of right-wing nationalist groups, disaffected Buddhist monks, and minor parties long rejected by the electorate. Among them are remnants of the *Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), once a political giant but now polling at **less than one percent, and veteran extremists such as **Udaya Gammanpila*, whose Sinhala nationalist rhetoric remains popular only within small fringe circles.
Also lending nominal support is *Ranil Wickremesinghe*, the former president whose own party suffered a historic collapse, failing to secure even a single seat through the popular vote before being resurrected through parliamentary manoeuvring.
For a man hoping to resurrect a national movement, Namal’s chosen allies represent the very political ghosts that the Sri Lankan electorate buried in 2022.
Behind Namal’s sudden nationalist revival lies a more pragmatic motive — survival.
The *Rajapaksa family* remains under multiple ongoing criminal and corruption investigations. The *Attorney General’s Department* and *Commission to Investigate Allegations of Bribery or Corruption (CIABOC)* are probing government tenders, property transactions, and alleged kickbacks involving state construction contracts during Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency and Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s tenure as defence secretary.
Namal himself faces inquiries into several high-value tenders related to *high-rise construction projects, **sports ministry appointments, and suspected **money laundering*.
According to senior officials in Colombo, these investigations are entering an “active prosecution phase.” Political analysts believe that the 21 November rally is Namal’s attempt to frame himself as a nationalist victim — a narrative his father once mastered during the post-war years.
Yet, in the new political landscape shaped by the NPP’s anti-corruption mandate, the old tricks appear obsolete.
In a fiery statement earlier this week, *JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva*, whose party anchors the NPP coalition, mocked Namal’s rally. “If Namal can bring 500 people,” he said, “we can bring 50,000.”
Silva’s warning was equally direct. “Anyone who attempts to destabilise the government’s development programme through uncivilised methods will not be tolerated. This government will not forgive those acting against the people’s mandate.”
The statement underscored the NPP’s growing confidence — and its readiness to counter attempts to reignite street-level agitation. Sources within the Ministry of Public Security confirmed that intelligence units have been instructed to monitor the 21 November gathering closely, citing “credible reports” that participants are being *paid and transported* from southern provinces.
According to logistical data obtained by Lanka-e-News *, the rally’s organisers have **chartered approximately 300 buses* to ferry supporters from Hambantota, Tangalle, and Matara to Colombo.
A leaked message thread circulating among SLPP local organisers in the south promises each attendee *Rs. 5,000*, free meals, and alcohol “for motivation.”
Political observers describe it as a *staged protest*, a familiar strategy in Sri Lankan politics but one that often backfires in the social media era. “People are no longer fooled by hired crowds,” said Dr. Mendis, a political former sociologist at the University of Kelaniya. “They know who is being paid to clap and who is genuinely angry.”
Recent polling by independent research group Lanka Insight estimates Namal Rajapaksa’s current public approval at *below 2 percent*, with his “core support base” concentrated among fewer than 5,000 individuals — mostly long-time loyalists from the Hambantota district.
In contrast, the NPP government enjoys consistent approval above *60 percent*, buoyed by visible anti-corruption measures and the stabilisation of the rupee.
The numbers tell a stark story: *Namal no longer represents a national force but a local curiosity.* His rally, therefore, risks becoming a referendum on his relevance.
Adding to Namal’s troubles are fresh allegations surrounding his *entry and qualification as a lawyer*.
Investigative platform Lanka-e-News claims to have obtained documents indicating that Namal’s *Sri Lanka Law College examination* was passed under questionable circumstances. According to whistleblower accounts, two senior lawyers and a college administrator allegedly provided “unauthorised assistance” during his final written examination.
Legal experts argue that if proven, such misconduct could warrant *criminal prosecution* under Sri Lanka’s Penal Code for examination fraud.
The *Law College principal* at the time has refused to comment, while the *Bar Association of Sri Lanka* has called for an “independent inquiry” to protect the institution’s credibility.
Opposition activists are now preparing a *counter-protest* on the same day as Namal’s rally, demanding he publicly answer the question: “How did you pass your law exam?”
Meanwhile, new allegations of *undisclosed overseas investments* continue to shadow the Rajapaksa family.
According to information obtained by Lanka-e-News and verified by several sources, investigators are examining potential *investments in hotel and property portfolios in southern England*, specifically in **Dover **, in Kent .
Anonymous tip-offs suggest that assets may have been acquired through proxies or family associates.
If proven, such revelations would further reinforce suspicions of large-scale capital flight during the final years of Mahinda Rajapaksa’s presidency.
Financial investigators in Colombo confirmed that the *Financial Intelligence Unit (FIU)* has received mutual legal assistance requests to the UK regarding “certain Sri Lankan politically exposed persons,” though officials declined to name individuals pending formal proceedings.
The Rajapaksa name once carried an aura of invincibility. It was synonymous with military victory, nationalist populism, and the notion of a “strong state.” Today, it evokes economic collapse, corruption, and authoritarian decay.
From Mahinda’s ouster in 2015 to Gotabaya’s dramatic flight from office in 2022, the family has watched its political empire disintegrate in real time. Namal’s attempt to reignite the old nationalist flames is, in effect, an act of *political nostalgia* — a yearning for a public adoration that no longer exists.
Dr. Dayananda Senanayake, a political historian, describes Namal’s predicament succinctly: “He is a man standing on the ashes of a dynasty, trying to prove it still burns.”
Government-aligned trade unions, student organisations, and civil society groups have already announced *counter-protests* for 21 November. The JVP-led *National Youth Front* has pledged to mobilise 50,000 participants under the slogan “Expose the Corrupt, Defend the People’s Mandate.”
Security sources say police have drawn up contingency plans to prevent confrontations between opposing groups in central Colombo. “Our main concern,” one senior police officer told Lanka-e-News is that Namal’s rally could trigger violence if intoxicated supporters clash with counter-protesters.”
Indeed, reports that alcohol has been stockpiled for distribution among attendees have sparked condemnation across social media, with commentators accusing Namal’s camp of “cheap populism.”
For Namal Rajapaksa, the 21 November rally is more than just a political statement — it is a test of survival. Should the turnout falter or violence erupt, the consequences could be catastrophic.
“If the rally fails, Namal will have publicly demonstrated his irrelevance,” says Prof. Ruwan Fernando, a political scientist at the University of Peradeniya. “It will effectively end his future within the SLPP and seal the Rajapaksa dynasty’s political fate.”
Government insiders quietly predict that a poor showing could accelerate pending corruption indictments against the Rajapaksa family. “Once his perceived influence collapses, there will be no political cost in prosecuting them,” one cabinet source said.
As Sri Lanka stabilises under the NPP administration, Namal’s rhetoric — invoking nationalism, sovereignty, and anti-foreign slogans — feels increasingly anachronistic.
“What Namal fails to understand,” said political commentator Chamila Wijesinghe, “is that patriotism no longer sells when the people are hungry. The new generation doesn’t want slogans — they want jobs and justice.”
In this sense, the 21 November rally is not just a miscalculated protest; it is a public exhibition of *how far the Rajapaksas have fallen*.
From commanding state parades to paying people to attend a street rally, the transformation is complete.
On the eve of his rally, Namal Rajapaksa faces a reckoning of his own making. He is the inheritor of privilege without power, of a legacy without legitimacy. The very institutions his family once controlled — the courts, the police, the state media — now move under a government that owes the Rajapaksas nothing.
If the 21 November rally collapses, as many expect, it will not merely mark the failure of a protest but the symbolic end of a political dynasty that mistook inherited name for earned respect.
For a man once groomed to be president, the fall will be spectacular — and entirely self-inflicted.
-By LeN Political Correspondent
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by (2025-11-13 19:05:15)
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