From zero to hero: Ranil cracks snappy jokes after becoming PM

Ta c k l i n g hard-nosed questions with witty responses is not something new for the new Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe who assumed duties on Thursday, though he did not have a single seat in Parliament and had to be nominated as an MP. Many times he deflects hard questions by cracking jokes.

Shortly after he assumed duties on Thursday and visited religious places for blessings, he had a casual chat with journalists. One of them, a foreign journalist asked whether he has any moral mandate to run Sri Lanka since his party failed to return even a single seat. His response was that even late British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had only three members backing him in 1939.

"How did he become the Prime Minister? Because of the crisis. I have done the same. Learn your history," he said, somewhat angrily and walked away.

There was another question from another journalist about the recent protest staged in front of his personal residence in Colombo under the slogan 'Ranil should go home.'

The PM responded by saying: “When the protest was underway, I was at home,” and chuckled.