TNA hierarchy backs controversial Sinhala extremist project at Jaffna entrance

[TamilNet, Friday, 15 March 2019, 21:02 GMT]
The unitary state of genocidal Sri Lanka, which constitutionally accords ‘foremost place’ to Buddhism, has stepped up the hurried erection of a large Buddhist stupa at the entrance to Jaffna city in Naavatkuzhi. The ruling UNP has exerted pressure on the elected Divisional Council (PS) of Chaavakach-cheari to silently withdraw the case against the controversial project through its TNA collaborator M.A. Sumanthiran, civil servants who were forced to withdraw the case told TamilNet. The vihara was not to be built without the permission from the democratically elected civic council, the Magistrate of Chaavakach-cheari had previously ruled. After getting the TNA to withdraw its objection, SL Minister of Megapolis & Western Development ‘Patali’ Champika Ranawaka, a Sinhala extremist, visited Naavatkuzhi on 22 February to accelerate the ‘development’ of the hostile project in Jaffna.





The hierarchy of the TNA was compromising the policies of Eezham Tamils by succumbing to the so-called development funds flowing through the UNP regime, the internal critics of the TNA said.

TNA's Civic Councillor Kanagasabai Kajeeban, when contacted by TamilNet, regretted and said the council was not fully aware of the sinister cancellation that had taken place with the backing of TNA's hierarchy. No motion on cancellation was tabled at the assembly, he said.

The case against the construction was filed in 2017 when Justice C.V. Wigneswaran was the chief minister of the NPC.



‘Patali’ Champika Ranawaka, now in the UNP is a former militant JVPer from the 1980s. He agitated against the Indo-Lanka accord and had later split from the JVP contradicting with the militant ‘Marxist’ founder of the JVP Rohana Wijeweera.

Ranawaka was a principal founder of Sinhala extremist National Movement Against Terrorism (NMAT) in 1998 and Sinhala Urumaya (SU) in 2000.

He was also known for his Nazi shade of anti-Semitism in his speeches comparing the Tamils with the Jews and the Sinhalese with ‘Aryans’.

‘Patali’ was also instrumental in seizing the coastal lands between Maathakal and KKS in Jaffna to expand the so-called ‘Sacred Zone’ of Thiruvadi-nilai during the times of Rajapaksa rule.



Suren Raghavan, the Northern Governor, appointed by the SL President Maithiripala Sirisena, is also backing the Sinhala Buddhist establishment, informed sources at Jaffna District Secretariat said.

The occupying Sinhala soldiers are engaged in the construction work both day and night.

Since 2009, a Sinhala colony has been set-up by the occupying SL military at the locality with the backing of the extremist Buddhist groups and the ruling SL governments in Colombo.



The colonisation scheme, initiated during the times of Rajapaksa administration has been further strengthened under Maithiripala Sirisena and Ranil Wickramasinghe with state-sponsored housing schemes to the Sinhala colonists.

ITAK Leader Mavai Senathiraja who opposed the colonisation programme later succumbed to the pressure from Colombo establishment that traded with him a housing scheme for uprooted and poverty-stricken Tamils in Naavat-kuzhi. However, the project never materialised.

Naavat-kuzhi is located 5 km east of the city and is a major junction where the two highways A9 and A32 that come from the south join and enter into the city.

More than 50% of the construction of the controversial vihara is already complete.



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