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Compulsions at home prompted India’s External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to keep to a tight schedule during his day-long visit to Sri Lanka last Thursday.

His schedule allowed only 30 minutes for a meeting at the India House with representatives of Tamil political parties. Tamil National Alliance (TNA) leader Rajavarothiyam Sampanthan had to seek medical attention and was unable to attend. Shanakiyan Rasamanickam was drawn in to represent the east, and there were eight participants.

Each participant has been advised to take three minutes to make a presentation. The only exception was Mavai Senathirajah, who took seven minutes. Besides the three minutes he was granted, he took four more to translate into English what he said. In a sense, that was a repeat since EAM Jaishankar is a fluent Tamil speaker.

Among other matters, C.V. Wigneswaran and the new leader of the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (ITAK), the majority partner in the TNA, said they planned to put forward a “common candidate” at the presidential election. “Are you serious,” asked EAM Jaishanker. It took TNA’s Abraham Sumanthiran and a few others to say they were not in favour of the idea.

When the meeting ended and Minister Jaishanker was walking away, he was accosted by Dharmalingam Siddhartan.
He asked him, “What do you think of the proposal for
a common candidate?”

“That is a matter for you all to decide. I have nothing to say,” he responded.

On vengeful Treasury official’s tip-off, Customs check bags of minister, daughter

A cabinet minister recently returned to Sri Lanka from the US with his daughter. A senior Treasury official was also on the same flight.

During transit, the Treasury official is said to have called a senior official at Sri Lanka Customs, claiming that the minister was bringing contraband into the country.

Acting on this information, Customs sent some 20 officers to the Bandaranaike International Airport to catch the minister ‘red-handed’. The minister and his daughter were immediately surrounded and cordoned off by Customs officers as soon as they landed. Their baggage was searched in public. However, nothing incriminating was found.

Embarrassed by the fiasco, the red-faced Customs officers made a hasty exit.

In the aftermath of the incident, red lights are now blinking for the senior Treasury official, who is known for resenting politicians. He may well wind up on the mat for making a bogus call. Red lights are also blinking for the Customs officer, who ordered the
team to search the minister and his daughter following the call from the Treasury man.

Yoga bond for CB Governor

For Central Bank Governor Nandalal Weerasinghe, the subject of ‘bonds’ seems to be close to his heart, as has been seen in the socks he wears.

He took time off from his busy schedule to take part in the 10th International Day of Yoga (IDY) event organised by the Indian High Commission’s cultural arm, the Swami Vivekananda Cultural Centre, at the iconic Galle Face Green yesterday.

India’s High Commissioner Sri Santosh Jha joined the yoga event with special guests including Education Minister Susil Premajayantha, Justice Minister Wijeyadasa Rajapaksha, Foreign Minister Ali Sabry, and the Navy’s Chief of Staff, Rear Admiral Pradeep Rathnayake.

Media games the PMD plays

The President’s Media Division (PMD) has been hosting media conferences by various ministries at the Presidential Media Centre of t
he President’s Secretariat to detail the “progress” achieved over the past
two years.

In preparation for these media conferences, the PMD sends out a pre-briefing preparation note to the ministries, asking them to send material that can be used in PowerPoint presentations during the briefing. One such note, seen by the Sunday Times, also asks a ministry to submit “a list of questions that journalists should raise at the media briefing.”

It seems the PMD has some journalists lined up to bowl “full tosses” so that the ministry spokesman can hit them “for a six”. The PMD can count that as ‘progress’ from its side.

Highway robbery: 19 employees who pocketed toll gate money still in service

At the Committee on Public Enterprises (COPE) meeting held on June 18, the Auditor General’s Office brought up the urgent issue of how the Ministry of Transport and Highways is keeping in employment workers who have allegedly misappropriated funds.

It was pointed out that the alleged fraud had happened at the Southern Expressway’s Athurugiriya Interchange, but the authorities are treating it as an internal management issue.

It was revealed that 19 employees had been found to have committed fraud and other irregularities at the Athurugiriya Interchange. They were alleged to have misappropriated the ticket collection by switching off the power supply and CCTV cameras.

When asked by COPE members what action the authorities had taken against these employees, the ministry officials said it was not feasible to fire the 19 employees because there were no suitable substitutes. They have been granted a service contract to distribute tickets at the interchange’s entrance in the meantime. The admission drew a strong rebuke from both
the COPE members and the Auditor General.

Some members questioned whether the 19 employees who have misappropriated state funds could not be replaced with surplus workers within the Road Development Authority.

The Transport and Highways Ministry Secretary did, however, state that the entire ticketing procedure will be made electronic as a long-term fix. He promised that it would be implemented in six months, with a test project deployed at the port access’s elevated expressway by August as the first phase. The tender process is currently underway.

Lankan-origin Britons enter election fray in UK

Charith Gunawardena

As the UK gears up for its general election in less than a fortnight (July 4), some of those who are of British with some form of Sri Lankan origin have also become prominently involved as either candidates or financiers for the major parties: Labour, Conservatives, Reform and the Green Party.

From the Conservative Party, a frontline candidate is Ranil Malcolm Jayawardena, the 37-year-old MP for North East Hampshire. He got a big post as Minister for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs briefly and was earlier Deputy Minister for International Trade. If he wins his seat and his party loses the election, as is being predicted, he will be a frontline opposition member. With age on his side, the London School of Economics graduate is due for big stakes the next time the Tories get elected to office.

Ranil Jayawardena

This week, the BBC reported that Muslim millionaire Zia Yusuf had donated hundreds of thousands of British pounds to the right-wing populist party, Reform UK, led by the controversial politician Nigel Farage, a close friend of former US president and current presidential aspirant Donald Trump. Yusuf claims in the interview that the UK has “lost control of its borders.” Mr. Yusuf earned an estimated 31 million British pounds from selling his luxury concierge app Velocity Black last year. He told the BBC he believed ‘unsustainable’ net migration levels were making it harder for legal migrants to integrate and overwhelming the NHS.

The precise amount the millionaire has given to the party has not been disclosed, according to the BBC, but Reform UK claims it is the biggest donation of their general election campaign so far. Reform UK leader Nigel Farage has faced criticism from Muslim organisations after he said a growing number of Muslims do not share British values. However, Mr. Yusuf says he’s a British patriot, and most Muslims in Britain are patriots. He said the Reform Party leadership “feels very strongly that we should protect British values and put British people of all religions and creeds first.”

Zia Yusuf

Mr. Yusuf’s parents had come to Britain from Sri Lanka in the 1980s and had worked in the National Health Service (NHS). He told the BBC, “We need a grown-up discussion about immigration without name-calling,” and that it was his “patriotic duty” to fund Nigel Farage and Reform UK. It is also reported that Mr. Yusuf will have a public role for Reform UK during the campaign.

Meanwhile, Uma Kumaran, who was born in the UK to parents who fled Sri Lanka’s LTTE-led armed conflict in the 1980s, is standing as a candidate for the Labour party in the newly carved-out constituency of Stratford & Bow, considered a safe Labour seat.

At the 2015 General Election, Ms. Kumaran stood as the Labour candidate in Harrow East, which is one of the most cosmopolitan constituencies in the UK, with large South Asian communities, and lost to Tory MP Bob Blackman. She did not contest in 2017 or 2019 but has now been fielded in the new seat of S&B.

Ms. Kumaran was born in East London, studied at Queen Mary University, lived in Stratford, Maryland, and Bow, and worked in the NHS. In her campaign literature, she says she has worked for the UN on climate change issues and also worked for the Labour Mayor of London on free school meals and council homes.

Uma Kumaran

Charith Gunawardena, a one-time local councillor in the London Borough of Enfield, is coming forward as the Greens Party candidate from the Southgate and Wood Green constituency, saying his party transcends mere political affiliations. It’s about shaping the trajectory of the UK towards a more sustainable and equitable future. He is a director of a not-for-profit enterprise supporting small and medium-sized businesses and is an engineer by training.

Opinion polls predict a resounding victory for the opposition Labour Party and say the ruling Conservatives may even slip to third place behind the Reform Party. If so, the country will see a left-wing party winning, a right-wing party as the main opposition, and a right-of-centre party third. The Green Party has yet to get electoral traction, though it has done well in other European countries, especially Germany.