The All Ceylon Hindu Congress joined the Northern Province's chief minister, C V Wigneswaran in calling for a federal solution to the ethnic conflict as a means to ensure harmony.
Defending Mr Wigneswaran over his speech at the mass Tamil rally last weekend, which has been condemned by Sinhala nationalists who have issued death threats against him, the ACHC said, " federalism is not a division of the country. Federalism will pave way, by way of devolution of power for the people of all the communities to live in harmony with equal rights within one country."
"One columnist in an English newspaper has rightly pointed out, that the protesting people had read only the front headlines in the media and had not bothered to read the entire text of the Chief Minister’s speech," the ACHC said in a statement, published in Colombo Telegraph.
"The Chief Minister has clearly declared that he is not acting against Sinhalese or Buddhist or any other race or religion."
"In these circumstances, we consider it as an act of sin to insult the Chief Minister as a racist. We believe that efforts are being made to prepare a constitution with a view to create a reconciliation and mutual trust among and to grant equal rights to all the races."
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