Angajan Ramanathan
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Angajan Ramanathan (; born 9 July 1983) is a
Sri Lankan Tamil Sri Lankan Tamils ( or ), also known as Ceylon Tamils or Eelam Tamils, are Tamils native to the South Asian island state of Sri Lanka. Today, they constitute a majority in the Northern Province, form the plurality in the Eastern Province a ...
politician, former provincial councillor and Member of Parliament. He is the current Deputy chairman of committees of the Parliament of Sri Lanka.


Early life and family

Ramanathan was born on 9 July 1983. Ramanathan's father Sathasivam Ramanathan is an associate of
Basil Rajapaksa Basil Rajapaksa (born 27 April 1951) is a Sri Lankan-American politician. He is a former Minister of Finance and Member of Parliament for the national list. He was also a member of the Sri Lankan Parliament from 2007 to 2015. During the peri ...
, brother of former
President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) * President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Arts and entertainment Film and television *'' Præsident ...
Mahinda Rajapaksa Mahinda Rajapaksa (; ; born Percy Mahendra Rajapaksa; 18 November 1945) is a Sri Lankan politician. He served as the sixth President of Sri Lanka from 2005 to 2015; the Prime Minister of Sri Lanka from 2004 to 2005, 2018, and 2019 to 2022; the ...
. Sathasivam Ramanathan is reputed to have made billions from
smuggling Smuggling is the illegal transportation of objects, substances, information or people, such as out of a house or buildings, into a prison, or across an international border, in violation of applicable laws or other regulations. More broadly, soc ...
abroad refugees from the Sri Lankan Civil War and from government corruption. Sathasivam Ramanathan, who has extensive business interests in Sri Lanka and the U.K., was refused entry to the U.K. in 1993 due to his involvement in providing false documents to migrants entering the U.K. and the
European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The u ...
. Ramanathan was educated at Mahajana College, Tellippalai,
S. Thomas' Preparatory School S. Thomas' Preparatory School (abbreviated as STPS) is a private, Anglican, multi-ethnic, primary and secondary day school for boys aged 5 to 16 years, located in Kollupitiya in the Colombo District of the Western Province of Sri Lanka. The sch ...
,
Colombo International School Colombo International School (CIS) is a private co-educational school in Colombo, Sri Lanka. It was founded in 1982 by Elizabeth Moir and employs an English-medium curriculum. In 1998 the school was expanded by the new Chairman of the Board of D ...
and in Singapore. He has
bachelor's degree A bachelor's degree (from Medieval Latin ''baccalaureus'') or baccalaureate (from Modern Latin ''baccalaureatus'') is an undergraduate degree awarded by colleges and universities upon completion of a course of study lasting three to six years ...
in
computer engineering Computer engineering (CE, CoE, or CpE) is a branch of engineering specialized in developing computer hardware and software. It integrates several fields of electrical engineering, electronics engineering and computer science. Computer engi ...
and
MBA A Master of Business Administration (MBA) is a professional degree focused on business administration. The core courses in an MBA program cover various areas of business administration; elective courses may allow further study in a particular a ...
from Australia. Ramanathan is married to Prashanthini and has a child.


Career

Ramanathan contested the 2010 parliamentary election as one of the
United People's Freedom Alliance The United People's Freedom Alliance (UPFA; ''Eksath Janathā Nidahas Sandānaya''; ) was a political alliance in Sri Lanka founded by former Sri Lankan president Chandrika Kumaratunga in 2004 and dissolved by former Sri Lankan President Ma ...
(UPFA)
electoral alliance An electoral alliance (also known as a bipartisan electoral agreement, electoral pact, electoral agreement, electoral coalition or electoral bloc) is an association of political parties or individuals that exists solely to stand in elections. E ...
's candidates in
Jaffna District Jaffna District ( ''Yāḻppāṇam Māvaṭṭam''; ''yāpanaya distrikkaya'') is one of the 25 districts of Sri Lanka, the second level administrative division of the country. The district is administered by a District Secretariat headed by a ...
but failed to get elected after coming 7th amongst the UPFA candidates. During the election campaign, on 31 March 2010, Ramanathan and supporters were attacked by Eelam People’s Democratic Party (EPDP), a government backed paramilitary group and a member of the UPFA. In retaliation, the following day supporters of Ramanathan shot at
Mayor of Jaffna The Mayor of Jaffna is the head of the Jaffna Municipal Council, the local authority for the city of Jaffna in northern Sri Lanka. The seat is currently vacant. Mayors and chairmen Notes References * Sources * {{List of mayors in Sri ...
Yogeswari Patkunarajah, a member of the EPDP. In August 2010 Ramanathan was appointed
Sri Lanka Freedom Party The Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP; ; ) is a centre-left political party in Sri Lanka. Founded by S. W. R. D. Bandaranaike in 1951, the party was one of Sri Lanka's two main parties from the 1950s to the 2010s, serving as the main rival of the c ...
(SLFP) organiser for
Jaffna District Jaffna District ( ''Yāḻppāṇam Māvaṭṭam''; ''yāpanaya distrikkaya'') is one of the 25 districts of Sri Lanka, the second level administrative division of the country. The district is administered by a District Secretariat headed by a ...
by President Rajapaksa. Ramanathan contested the 2013 provincial council election as one of the UPFA's candidates in Jaffna District and was elected to the
Northern Provincial Council Northern Provincial Council ( ''Vaṭa Mākāṇa Capai''; NPC) is the provincial council for the Northern Province in Sri Lanka. In accordance with the Sri Lankan constitution, NPC has legislative power over a variety of matters including agri ...
. During the election campaign, on 27 August 2013, a violent clash took place between UPFA candidates in
Chavakachcheri Chavakachcheri ( Cāvakaccēri, Jāvakachchēri) is a town in the Jaffna peninsula of Jaffna District, Northern Province, Sri Lanka. It may have Javanese origins, as the name "Chaavaka+cheari" literally means Javanese settlement (there are als ...
during which Ramanathan's father Sathasivam Ramanathan opened fire on a group led A. Sarvananthan. Sathasivam Ramanathan was arrested and remanded for
attempted murder Attempted murder is a crime of attempt in various jurisdictions. Canada Section 239 of the ''Criminal Code'' makes attempted murder punishable by a maximum of life imprisonment. If a gun is used, the minimum sentence is four, five or seve ...
. Also during the election campaign, a UPFA mob, including Ramanathan and his father, attacked
Tamil National Alliance The Tamil National Alliance (TNA; ISO 15919: ''tamiḻt tēciyakkūṭṭamaippu'') was a political alliance in Sri Lanka which represented the Sri Lankan Tamil minority of the country. It was formed in October 2001 by a group of moderate T ...
candidate P. Thambirajah. The day before the election Ramanathan was still campaigning using
SMS Short Message Service, commonly abbreviated as SMS, is a text messaging service component of most telephone, Internet and mobile device systems. It uses standardized communication protocols that let mobile phones exchange short text messages, t ...
, violating electoral law. Ramanathan is alleged to have organised abductions and attacks on behalf of the
Rajapaksa family The Rajapaksa family () is a Sri Lankan family that is prominent in politics. It was one of Sri Lanka's most powerful families during Mahinda Rajapaksa's presidency, when many members of the family occupied senior positions in the Sri Lankan s ...
. Jaffna UPFA municipal councillor Suveeharan Nishanthan claims he was abducted and assaulted by Ramanathan and his father on 3 April 2013 in
Colombo Colombo, ( ; , ; , ), is the executive and judicial capital and largest city of Sri Lanka by population. The Colombo metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of 5.6 million, and 752,993 within the municipal limits. It is the ...
. Ramanathan contested the 2015 parliamentary election as one of the UPFA's candidates in Jaffna District but the UPFA failed to win any seats in the district. However, after the election he was appointed to the
Parliament of Sri Lanka The Parliament of the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka (Sinhala: ශ්‍රී ලංකා පාර්ලිමේන්තුව ''Śrī Laṇkā Pārlimentuvā'', Tamil: இலங்கை நாடாளுமன்றம் '' ...
as a
National List The National List (, ''Reshima Mamlakhtit''), sometimes translated as the State List, was a political party in Israel. Despite being founded by David Ben-Gurion, one of the fathers of the Israeli left, the party is one of the ancestors of the mo ...
MP representing the UPFA. During the election campaign Ramanathan's supporters attacked supporters of the United Socialist Party. He was appointed Deputy Minister of Agriculture in June 2018. He lost his position at the start of the 2018 Sri Lankan constitutional crisis in October 2018 but was reappointed a few days later in the new government. He lost his position following the end of the crisis in December 2018. Ramanathan contested the 2020 parliamentary election as a SLFP candidate in Jaffna District and was re-elected. His victory was attributed to the
US$ The United States dollar (Currency symbol, symbol: Dollar sign, $; ISO 4217, currency code: USD) is the official currency of the United States and International use of the U.S. dollar, several other countries. The Coinage Act of 1792 introdu ...
15,000 (
Rs. Rupee (, ) is the common name for the currencies of India, Mauritius, Nepal, Pakistan, Seychelles, and Sri Lanka, and of former currencies of Afghanistan, Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, the United Arab Emirates (as the Gulf rupee), British East Afri ...
2.7 million) he spent on
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advertising - the second highest of all candidates and ten times his nearest rival in Jaffna District, M. A. Sumanthiran - and the publicity provided by the private media network, consisting of the Capital FM radio station and the Capital News cable station, owned by his uncle S. Vincendrarajan.
Ratnajeevan Hoole Professor Samuel Ratnajeevan Herbert Hoole (born 15 September 1952; commonly known as Ratnajeevan Hoole) is a Sri Lankan Tamil engineer and academic. He was a member of the Election Commission of Sri Lanka. Early life and family Hoole was born o ...
, one of the three members of the Election Commission of Sri Lanka, has accused Ramanathan of committing various violations of electoral law during the election campaign including using the Jaffna Kachcheri for electoral purposes, passing off government donations for the
COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...
as his own, blocking public roads to hold election rallies and using Capital FM radio station and Capital News cable station, both owned by his uncle S. Vincendrarajan, for election propaganda. After the election Ramanathan was appointed chairman of the Jaffna District Coordinating Committee (DDC). Ramanathan's first acts in his new role was to issue an order that all development activity in the district needs his approval and to appoint his father as his representative and co-ordinating officer in the DDC. He also took over three offices in the Jaffna District Secretariat rather than customary one room. Ramanathan was elected Deputy chairman of committees of the Parliament of Sri Lanka unopposed when the new parliament met on 20 August 2020.


Electoral history


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Ramanathan, Angajan 1983 births Living people Alumni of Colombo International School Alumni of Mahajana College, Tellippalai Alumni of S. Thomas' Preparatory School, Kollupitiya Deputy chairmen of committees of the Parliament of Sri Lanka Deputy ministers of Sri Lanka Sri Lankan Hindus Members of the 15th Parliament of Sri Lanka Members of the 16th Parliament of Sri Lanka Members of the Northern Provincial Council Sri Lanka Freedom Party politicians Tamil politicians Sri Lanka People's Freedom Alliance politicians United People's Freedom Alliance politicians