The Bodu Bala Sena, an organisation of Sinhala Buddhist monks has called for the arrest of TNA MP Sritharan for his comments in parliament praising LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran, while defence secretary Gotabhaya Rajapaksa accused the TNA of trying to sabotage the reconciliation process.
Gotabhaya said to The Island that Sritharan’s comments were designed to provoke the government and the military, causing instability and political turmoil ahead of the UN Human Rights Council session in March.
The Defence Secretary further said that the TNA still continues to take orders from the “LTTE Rump”, adding that the TNA had supported the LTTE until the very end of the war.
General Secretary of the BBS Galagoda Atte Gnanasara said that Sritharan had violated the Sri Lankan Constitution and he should be arrested for it.
Gnanasara also hit out at other MPs for not disrupting the speech and called on MPs to make speeches on Sinhala national heroes in parliament.
State owned newspaper, the Daily News said in an editorial titled “A maniac in our midst”, that Sritharan must be a “certified lunatic”, adding that his comments had been “expunged” from the Hansard.
The paper also called for action to be taken against the MP, saying he was in violation of the 6th amendment to the constitution, which outlaws the call for a separate state.
“If he is not certified already as a raving madman he needs to be certified soon as it is dangerous to let loose the mentally unsound in society,” the editorial said.