“I do not believe the chief minister I know to be a racist. What he does is politics. He cannot show results. This government too, cannot show results,” he told Tamil journalists.

“Have youths been given jobs? There are no answers to that. So, racism or something else is fabricated in order for people to forget problems,” said Rajapaksa.

Tamil prisoners
He also said he was not opposed to the releasing of Tamil prisoners, adding that what was against was the government’s interfering in the judiciary and getting them freed.

The former president said his son Namal asked after returning from remand custody as to why they were not being released.

“If the attorney general’s department wants, it can withdraw the cases. Or else, it can speed up the cases.”

He said that when he had been in power, he planned to rehabilitate Tamil prisoners and release them, but their lawyers wanted them to be produced before courts.

Or else, they could have been freed by now.

Northern development
Rajapaksa went onto say that the northern development has come to a halt after he lost power, and that the government has failed to solve problems of the province.

“The government says it is withdrawing the military. I don’t know the extent of the withdrawal. But, tell me if a single Tamil refugee camp is closed. That shows the government does not think about the Tamil people. It only thinks about its politics.”

When asked if it was a correct decision to hold local government polls for the north in view of the prevailing situation there, he said that for the present, he thought so.