Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) Leader and MP Mano Ganesan yesterday urged Opposition and SJB Leader Sajith Premadasa to uphold the principles of equal citizenship and mutual respect within the SJB, objecting to remarks attributed to senior party member Lakshman Kiriella concerning Tamil and Muslim communities.
In a letter to Premadasa, Ganesan has expressed concern over remarks reportedly made by Kiriella during a meeting between an SJB delegation and the Most Venerable Mahanayake Thera of the Malwathu Chapter in Kandy. Ganesan said he had also conveyed his concerns directly to the Opposition Leader.
While welcoming the delegation’s engagement with the country’s Buddhist religious leadership, Ganesan took exception to Kiriella’s reported suggestion that the government was using the issue involving Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera to appease Tamil-speaking citizens and others outside the Sinhala-Buddhist community.
He also criticised the reported use of the terms “sulu jaathi” and “maha jaathi” to distinguish between minority and majority communities, arguing that Sri Lanka should move beyond such terminology.
Ganesan has said that if accurately reported, the remarks risked reinforcing communal divisions and undermining the dignity of Tamil and Muslim citizens, who were equal stakeholders in the country’s plural society.
He has described the use of such language in a discussion with the country’s senior Buddhist religious leadership as particularly regrettable.
The TPA leader says his objections to the reported remarks should be treated separately from the legal proceedings involving Gnanasara Thera, including the controversy over the monk’s prison attire.
On the imprisonment, Ganesan says the rule of law must remain paramount, adding that he and others had refrained from questioning the judicial outcome on that basis.
He has said he would not object if President Anura Kumara Dissanayake, after due consideration and in accordance with the law, addressed legal deficiencies identified in a previous presidential pardon and granted a fresh pardon. He would respect the exercise of presidential discretion within the legal framework.
Regarding the prison attire controversy, he has called for the committee appointed by the President to be allowed to complete its examination and submit recommendations. Proposals to amend laws and regulations governing prisoners’ attire were expected within two weeks, he said.
Any resolution, Ganesan emphasised, must uphold the law, respect institutional responsibilities and ensure equality before the law.
He added that he had already appealed publicly to Tamil-speaking Sri Lankans to refrain from commenting on the issue while the review was underway, citing the risk of sensitive controversies escalating into wider communal tensions.
However, neither the imprisonment nor the questions surrounding a possible pardon or prison attire justified language that marginalised or disparaged Tamil and Muslim citizens, he has said.