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Barring today, there is only three more days to go for campaigning to close for the November 16 presidential election. Campaigning by the two main candidates – Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Sajith Premadasa – have peaked.

Amidst this, an ‘advisor’ of President Maithripala Sirisena is making a valiant effort to get him to meet New Democratic Front (NDF) candidate Sajith Premadasa at a public event.

The occasion he has chosen is Tuesday, just a day before the campaign closes. That is by seizing the twelfth day of every month when President Sirisena has a religious ceremony at a chosen temple. This month’s one falls on Tuesday.

He is planning to arrange for Premadasa to walk into the event when President Sirisena is present there.

Since the President has chosen to stay “neutral” at the elections, it is not clear whether he will be happy receiving the NDF candidate. Not that he dislikes him. He is a dear friend but there are fears in some quarters that the move may misfire with complaints to the National Election Commission.

Sajin de Vass Gunewardena addressing a news conference this week to talk about how he got Susil Premajayantha to resign from his Petroleum Resources portfolio

What was in this video clip of former minister Premajayantha?

Some of the saucy political battles are now being fought on the social media.

A case in point is a telephone conversation between Sajin de Vass Gunawardena, onetime confidant of then President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and SLPP Parliamentarian Lohan Ratwatte. The latter is the son of former Deputy Defence Minister Anuruddha Ratwatte.

The young Ratwatte is heard giving words of advice to Sajin de Vass Gunawardena. He asked that he be cautious when making remarks about the Rajapaksas. Yet, Mr Gunawardena was vocal and threatened to react even if a hair on his body was touched.

Countering Mr Gunawardena was former SLFP Minister Susil Premajayantha. He told the media that he was wrong and should not go on criticising his onetime boss.

It did not end there. Mr. Gunawardena had his own news conference. He revealed that he had once been sent by then President Rajapaksa to speak to Mr Premajayantha and call upon him to resign as Minister of Petroleum Resources. He had refused.

Thereafter, Mr Gunawardena said, he reported back to the then President Rajapaksa. The latter had given him a video clip and asked that he show it to Mr. Premajayantha.

“I know what was in the video. You (referring to Mr Premajayantha) know what was in the video. You then gave me your resignation letter to be given to the President,” Mr Gunawardena declared.

That was how, he said, Anura Priyadarshana Yapa was named as Minister in charge of petroleum Resources.

Ms. Sarah Nathan

Half Sri Lankan woman defends her conduct at Sydney airport

A half Sri Lankan woman has been accused of being a “slut” inside the Sydney Airport for wearing a track pant and a crop top while sitting on her boyfriend’s lap.

Sarah Nathan (33), who is half Sri Lankan, has told news.com.au, an Australian website that she was waiting for her flight on Sunday when staffers from Jetstar airline directed her to get off her boyfriend’s lap because children were present.

Ms. Nathan told the site she believes she was targeted only because she’s half Sri Lankan. She pointed out to the airline worker that a nearby white woman in the area “wore a very short strapless dress” but wasn’t bothered.

The Jetstar employee allegedly told Ms. Nathan that her outfit might get her “refused on a flight.”

Ms. Nathan showed the outfit off on Twitter (see picture). “Today I got publicly slut-shamed by two @JetstarAirways employees, whilst wearing this outfit!” she wrote.

She recalled how shocked she was when the airline worker made the request.

“My partner and I saw no children in the immediate vicinity and were bewildered at both this request and its relevance to how I was seated,” she said.

Ms. Nathan was waiting for her flight back home to Melbourne with a different airline when the confrontation occurred.

The Jetstar airline worker left and came back with a “team leader,” who gave the couple the same directive.

“She reiterated there were children around and added, ‘You’re disrespecting the parents here by straddling your boyfriend,’” said Ms. Nathan.

Jetstar has denied they discriminated against Ms. Nathan and said the investigation into the incident is ongoing.

“We apologise to Sarah for the manner in which her query was handled by our online customer service representative which fell well short of the standards we expect,” a Jetstar spokesperson said in a statement.

Bonanza for 100,000 pensioners

The proposal seeks approval to give legal effect to an earlier decision taken whereby those retiring between 2016 and 2020 will be entitled to a pension calculated on the basis of their 2020 salary.

This would effectively mean that if a person retires even before 2020, all salary increases provided thereafter until 2020 will be taken into consideration in calculating the pension.

The Government is to spend an additional Rs. 1 billion to make the payments.

The 100,000 pensioners who benefit from the revision include 22,526 people who retired in 2016, more than 24,000 in 2017, and another 26,000 last year.

Amid protest, Rishad forced to skip hotel school opening

Industry and Commerce Minister Rishad Bathiudeen recently was forced to skip an opening ceremony of a hotel school in Ahangama in the Galle district.

This was after intelligence reports revealed that there was a group waiting to protest against his participation at the event, though it was an official function.

Minister Bathiudeen heeding the advice had to keep away from the event and Skills Development and Vocational Training Deputy Minister Karunaratna Pathiravithana was given the responsibility of declaring opening the hotel school.

But the protesters did not give up and they turned up at the function. Every time Minister Bathiudeen’s name was mentioned the crowd booed.

Deputy Minister Pathiravithana thinking of a way to get over the issue then avoided mentioning Minister Bathiudeen’s name to minimise the damage.