A Tamil National Alliance (TNA) MP has slammed the Sri Lankan president for denigrating the LTTE leader V Prabhakaran, whom the MP described as the ‘leader of the Tamil people’.
TNA MP Shanthi Sriskandarajah had taken exception to Sri Lankan president Maithripala Sirisena’s comments claiming that the LTTE leader was connected to drug cartels. Ms Sriskandarajah also raised concerns about the timing of Sirisena’s remarks: with the president attempting to press on with executions for drug convictions, the MP accused Sirisena of laying the groundwork to further scapegoat former LTTE cadres as responsible for the drug problem in the North-East.
Sirisena “is not qualified to criticise Prabhakaran,” Ms Sriskandarajah said. “He was the leader of the Tamil people and paved the way for Tamil people to live with their artistic, cultural and traditional values without changing their moral values. But today, the government has destroyed all of them and it is taking various measures to destroy the Tamil people.”
“President Maithripala Sirisena, who came to power with Tamil people’s votes should not receive Tamil people’s curses by criticizing their leader,” she said.
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