How Rajapaksa dynasty controls Sri Lankan government, unmatched in South Asia

The Rajapaksas were ousted in 2015 when Mahinda lost the presidential election but they were back in power by 2019 when Gotabaya became the president and soon, one by one, the brothers and other family members were back in the business of government.

Dynasty and politics always seem to be a given in South Asia but things are not going too well for the big dynasties in most of the region, that is, if one does not count Sri Lanka. It is true that in India, there are political dynasties, in and out of power, stretching from Delhi to every state capital but at the Centre there is still the new man in town. In Bangladesh there are the Begums — one jailed for 17 years and the other fending off criticism in her 12th year in power.