Delhi-educated Harini Amarasuriya is new Sri Lankan Prime Minister

Chennai: Dr Harini Amarasuriya, a renowned academic and rights activist who pursued her undergraduate degree from Delhi’s Hindu College, was on Tuesday sworn in as Sri Lanka’s 16th Prime Minister, the only woman outside the influential Bandaranayake family to hold the top post.

54-year-old Harini, who was nominated to Sri Lanka’s Parliament in 2020, will be the island’s third woman Prime Minister after Sirimavo Bandaranayake and Chandrika Kumaratunga, who served multiple terms, having hailed from a family with rich political lineage.

Harini did her BA (Honours) in Sociology from Hindu College in Delhi as she couldn’t continue her education in Sri Lanka due to the escalation of the civil war in the late 1980s. Following her UG, she went to Australia to pursue a Masters in Applied Anthropology before returning to Sri Lanka and joining as a professor.

In a 2020 interview, Harini, who loves the works of Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy, had described her four years in Delhi as “fantastic.”

Newly-elected Executive President Anura Kumara Dissanayake appointed Amarasuriya as the Prime Minister following which he administered the oath of office and secrecy to the renowned academic. Ever since Sri Lanka adopted the Executive Presidency, the post of Prime Minister has become mere ceremonial with no “real powers and authority” but still holds the power to “advise” the head of the state on matters of national importance.

Meanwhile, the President dissolved the Parliament and the Election Commission announced that the elections will be held on November 14, following which the new Parliamentary Session will be held on November 21.

Harini, who identifies herself as a liberal, is well known for her research on feminism, gender inequality, child protection, and unemployment in her over two decade career as an academic. She resigned as professor in 2019 to campaign for Anura Dissanayake of the JVP in the Presidential polls, in which he polled a mere 3.2 percent of votes.

In 2020, the academic, who has done several researches on inefficiencies of the education system in Sri Lanka, was nominated by the National People’s Power, an alliance led by JVP, to the country’s Parliament.

Women prime ministers are not new to Sri Lanka with the country creating history as late as the 1960s to install the world’s first prime minister when Sirimavo was sworn-in after the assassination of her husband S W R D Bandaranaike.

She served three terms as prime minister, while her daughter Chandrika too held the post from August to November 1994. However, Harini is the first ‘commoner’ to hold the post of prime minister.

As Prime Minister, Harini will handle portfolios of Justice, Public Administration, Women, Child, and Youth Affairs, Industries, Food Security, and Health, among others. President Anura has decided to keep Defence, Finance, and Economic Development with him, and allot other portfolios to two more ministers -- Vijitha Herath and Lakshman Nipuna Arachchi.

Anura, popularly known as AKD, wrote himself into Sri Lanka’s history on Sunday by becoming the country’s first Marxist-leaning President. His victory also completes the mainstreaming of JVP from an organisation that led two insurgencies in 1970 and 1987 against the Sri Lankan state. JVP’s 1987 rebellion was against the Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF).