A. J. Ranasinghe

Arthur Jayasena Ranasinghe (4 January 1927) (known as A. J. Ranasinghe) was a Sri Lankan politician, State Minister and diplomat. In the third Sri Lankan presidential election, 1994 he was an Independent candidate and polled 22,752 votes. Ranasinghe was the first Director General of Tower Hall Theatre Foundation also he served as the Sri Lanka Deputy High Commissioner to Canada and later served as State Minister of Media under President R. Premadasa's Government. During the Premadasa regime, State Minister A. J. Ranasinghe used to be a master of worship and had no hesitation in extolling its virtues. Once when he was pictured prostrating before President Premadasa, his reaction was to say to the press, ” I will not only worship Ranasinghe Premadasa but will even lick his slippers, boil it and drink the broth as a soup’. The fact that he was called ‘serappu soupa’ after that was considered by him as a tag of honour. [1]