Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) leader Mano Ganesan has accused the National People's Power (NPP) government of hypocrisy over the arrest of Tamil rapper Sangeethsan Ganeskumar under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (PTA), pointing to NPP politicians who had themselves circulated songs glorifying the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) during election campaigns.
Sangeethsan, known professionally as Hiphop Sangee, was arrested on 2 June after Sri Lankan authorities alleged that videos uploaded to social media following a performance at a temple festival in Navatkuli, Chavakachcheri, had been edited in a manner that promoted the LTTE. He has been remanded until 17 June.
Ganesan named Fisheries Minister Ramalingam Chandrasekar, Jaffna District MPs Ilankumaran and Rajeevan, and MP Dr Bavanandarajah, alleging that they had openly used campaign songs praising the LTTE during the local government election campaign.
"If that is the meaning they are attributing to the song, then who else should be arrested?" Ganesan asked. "These four should be put in jail according to that logic."
His remarks echo a controversy that surfaced during last year's local government election campaign, when NPP campaign songs circulating in the North and East pledged, among other things, to construct a bronze statue in Valvettithurai honouring LTTE leader Velupillai Prabhakaran and to rebuild and preserve Maaveerar Thuyilum Illam memorial sites. Ganesan said the politicians in question had not only praised Prabhakaran but had pledged to erect a statue for his mother and discussed restoring the memorials.
The NPP denied responsibility for the material at the time, with the party's General Secretary stating that the videos had been created and tagged by third parties on MP Ilankumaran's Facebook page without his involvement. Ilankumaran has similarly rejected responsibility, stating that the songs were not published by him and had appeared independently on social media.
This remarks contradict how the songs were shared on his Facebook page directly.
Ganesan was unconvinced. "LTTE reorganisation is not taking place now," he said. "But if that is the government's logic, these are the people who should be imprisoned."
He went further, challenging Sri Lankan president Anura Kumara Dissanayake directly over the NPP's own electoral record in the Tamil homeland.
"Do you not have the intellect to realise that people in the North voted for the NPP?" Ganesan asked. "Doesn't that itself show that LTTE reorganisation is not taking place? Yet it is you who are claiming that the people are recreating the LTTE."
The TPA leader also attacked the government's failure to repeal the PTA, a commitment the NPP made repeatedly before coming to office. Recalling the Aragalaya protest movement, Ganesan said he had attended public meetings addressed by Dissanayake, Foreign Minister Vijitha Herath, and JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva.
"What was the first promise they made? They said they would repeal the PTA," he said. "Instead of repealing it, they are now trying to replace it. Even before doing that, they have the power to stop the current act using this law, but they have not done so."
Ganesan accused the government of continuing to use the PTA to suppress and intimidate Tamils under the pretence of preventing an LTTE revival. "What kind of justice is this?" he asked.
He also condemned the interrogation by Sri Lankan Police in Kopay of Valikamam East Pradeshiya Sabha Chairman Nirosh over the organisation of a memorial event for Pon Sivakumaran, and called on the government to repeal the PTA, release Tamil youth detained under the legislation, and cease what he described as the intimidation of local government representatives.