Bomber in PA for mess of pottage- mother

[TamilNet, Wednesday, 13 September 2000, 15:38 GMT]
The press conference of a controversial ex-bomber turned PA politician was disrupted Wednesday by his angry mother and sister who claimed that the former Marxist revolutionary had been bought over for a mess of pottage by the government. A press conference was convened this afternoon by Ajith Kumara, a leader of the Marxist revolutionary party, the Janata Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), to explain his decision to campaign in support of the People's Alliance.

The conference was hurriedly arranged following a statement issued to the press yesterday by the JVP claiming that Ajith Kumara had been expelled from the party for corruption and malpractice.

Ajith Kumara was arrested and jailed for lobbing a grenade at the cabinet of ministers while it was in secession in the Sri Lankan Parliament in July 1987. Mr.Lalith Athulathmudali, a senior minister, was seriously injured in the attack. Ajith Kumara, a hardcore member of the JVP was employed in the Parliament as a clerk at the time.

He became active in the JVP again after his release from jail. The PA, concerned that the JVP is drawing sizeable sections of its left leaning supporters among in rural areas and among the urban workers, is trying to woo and inveigle activists of the marxist insurrectionist group. Few leading members of the party, however, have succumbed to the PA's overtures.

The press conference turned into a shouting match between Ajith Kumara and his angry mother and sister who berated him for being an unscrupulous corsair. A journalist asked the women whether they had been instigated by the JVP to disrupt the conference.

They flatly denied the charge and continued to excoriate the hapless ex-insurrectionist.