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JVP’s Anura Kumara Dissanayake: A man for all religions, for this election season
View(s):For lifelong self-professed atheist JVP leader Anura Kumara, to whom all modes of religions are nothing but anathema, it has been a metamorphosing week from cocooned irreligious worm to carefree butterfly, flitting from every religious flower to another to suck the divine nectar each possessed.
When he suddenly manifested last Friday in the vicinity of Sri Dalada Maligawa, devotees at the temple would have stood amazed to see the self-proclaimed atheist, head straight to the Nayaka Thera’s office—as devout as devout can be—carrying ‘ata pirikara’ to obtain his blessings and that of the Sri Dalada, as President Ranil, with every vein throbbing with Buddhist blood, had faithfully done the day before.
Surprising for a man who said—as JVP presidential candidate five years ago—in an interview on Ada Derana TV in September 2019 that: “We believe the greatest respect we can give religion is not to bring religion into the election battleground. I ask why candidates who go to meet the Maha Nayakas, bring TV crews? We will not be like them selling religion at elections. We are not TV Buddhists.” Funny how principles dramatically change within a gap of five short years on the virtual eve of elections.
Former Diyawadana Nilame Neranjan Wijeratna told the Aruna newspaper this Monday: “In 1989 at the height of JVP’s terror reign, a group of JVP members banned the Dalada Perehara. I had to keep the sacred Tooth Relic in my hands and go around the Maligawa’s inside ‘Vahalkadin’ to complete the Perehara. They threatened the Malwatte Nayaka Sirimalwatte Ananda Thera and Palipana Sri Chandanda Nayayaka Thera of the Asgiri Chapter and myself not to hold the perahara and declare their curfew in Kandy town. They threatened to steal the sacred Tooth Relic. The day the JVP bombed the Sri Dalada Maligawa in 1989, they also fired gunshots inside. The marks it made can still be seen on the stone pillars of the ‘Hevisi Mandape’.”
That was old hat. For lifelong atheist Anura, the religious roadshow had just begun. The following day, Saturday, he committed blasphemy against his one god and no other god but Karl Marx, by embracing not just one god but a whole pantheon of Hindu gods.
THE FISRT RELIGIOUS STOP: JVP leader Anura visits Sri Dalada Maligawa and meets the Malwatte Mahanayake, Venerable Thibbatuwawe Sumangala Thera, to obtain the blessing of the Triple Gems, the first in a series of religious sites.
He visited Bambalapitiya’s Sri Manikka Vinayagur kovil with the man tipped to be the JVP’s future Finance Minister, atheist Sunil Handunnetti, in tow, where a pooja was held to invoke on him and his similarly unbelieving team, the blessings of the Hindu gods.
What next? Seek Holy Communion at the Roman Catholic church? Why not? That’s exactly what he did on Sunday to obtain the blessings of His Eminence Malcom Cardinal Ranjith and the Catholic Church at Archbishop’s Palace. The Cardinal received him and his team and, in the presence of his own host of Bishops, explained the issues that beset the Catholic church, mainly the Easter Sunday investigation to find the mastermind behind the attacks.
Outside the Archbishop’s Palace, Anura told the media: “We gave an assurance to the Cardinal that we will give adequate relief to the victims and bring to justice the perpetrators of the Easter Sunday bomb tragedy. The Cardinal and we share the same common ground of establishing the rule of law and justice. Only a JVP Government can do that.”
Then on Sunday, he made his pilgrim’s progress to visit the custodian monk of the Jaya Sri Mahabodhiya to obtain his blessings. He had come with ‘ata pirikara’ and did not go empty wristed. The Chief Monk also tied a ‘pirith noola’ to add to his growing list of a bracelet of strings on his wrist.
In an interview with YouTube journalist Chamuditha last December, the custodian monk of the nearby Mihinthale’s temple complex, Dhammarathana Thera, recounted how Anura had come to the temple a few days after being appointed as JVP’s new leader. He said: “I do not tie ‘pirith nool’ to any politician but because he was from the area, I tied him one. When he left, I was informed by temple monks, they had seen him taking it off on the doorstep of my abode. My driver who is still with me, confirmed what the monks said.”
So how long will the ‘pirith nool’ the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi Chief Monk tied around his wrist last? A day, perhaps? Nay, it should last till the countdown ends on September 21.
Wonder if one of JVP-NPP leaders Samantha Vidhyaratna was part of the same team that visited the Jaya Sri Maha Bodhi temple. He’s the one who recently said: “If only the Buddha had kept his back to a jak tree instead of a barren bo tree, we could, at least, had some Jak fruits to eat.” Whatever witticism JVP-NPP members saw in that vile derogatory remark, it left every Buddhist heart wounded to the core.
Anura’s religious roadshow had one destination more to make their sham replete. That was to make their final stop at the All Ceylon Jamiyyathul Ulema office in Maligawatte.
After the stopover, Anura told the media, “We explained our policy to them and received their blessings. Funny how they blessed infidels who blasphemed verse 45:19 in the Quaran which states: “Know thou therefore that there is no god but God, and ask forgiveness thy sin.”
By the end of the JVP leader’s religious farce, JVP’s Anura had turned from an atheist to a TV Buddhist, a TV Hindu, a TV Catholic and to a TV Muslim. Not bad for a week of farce, during which they, perhaps, had glimpsed how faith and religions can move men and mountains, and even miraculously transform an expected defeat to election triumph.
| Thalatha’s resignation brings vitriolic reaction Thalatha Athukorala resigned from Parliament on Wednesday describing her decision to quit as being due to the terrible remorse she felt, the guilt she had endured for these four long years as an SJB MP. In her swansong address in Parliament, she wailed: “I have watched with dismay UNP’s split and the formation of the SJB. The thought of whether I contributed to the division of our great party, makes me feel immensely sadder than all the happiness I received being an MP.” In fact, Thalatha had been one of the first to leave the UNP ranks and join as a founding senior female member of Sajith’s SJB. She said that, however, at the time most MPs were against the party being torn apart. Explaining the lead-up to the formation of the SJB, she recounted UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and the party’s repeated defeats in key elections. She described these defeats as unnatural but noted that a consensus emerged on the need for a change in the party leadership. “This struggle,” she said, “ultimately led to the formation of the SJB, marking the final split of the UNP, 72 years since its birth.”  THALATHA: Resigns after four years of guilt She said, “It pains me now to see two rivals from the same mother party contest for the presidency. Sajith, instead of embarking on a suicidal course, should heed the President’s call and join hands to save the motherland.” But hasn’t 61-year-old Thalatha realised that too much bad blood has flowed under the bridge to make any hope of reconciliation between the two warring leaders impossible? Reaction to Thalatha’s swansong was swift and vitriolic. SLPP secretary Sagara Kariyawasm lashed out at Thalatha for making “severe accusation against Lanza and Prasanna Ranatunga. But now she can safely join the camp they both preside without any fear of being soiled.” SJB MP Mujibur Rahman joined the vicious attack by saying, “Thalatha was the most vociferous supporter of Sajith, four years ago. In fact, she used to berate us for not supporting Sajith more. At the end, with Parliament’s 5-year term’s end in sight, she stabbed Sajith in the back with her knife.” Thalatha Athukorala first entered Parliament in 2004 upon the untimely demise of her brother, Gamini Athukorala. He was the General Secretary of the UNP and its Deputy leader. After serving as Cabinet Minister of Lands, Irrigation and Mahaweli Development under President Ranasinghe Premadasa in 1991, he emerged as a leading UNP figure for bringing victory to the party, for the major role he played in organising the ‘Jana Bala Meheyuma’ protest against President Chandrika Bandaranayake’s regime. Just 20 days after the formation of the United National Front Government, following the UNF’s victory on December 5, 2001, he suddenly died of a massive heart attack at his Ratnapura home on January 1, 2002 at the relatively young age of 50. The then Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe wrote movingly in his condolence message: “We journeyed together pursuing the aim of rebuilding the country. But my companion on the journey left me before reaching that goal.”Younger sister Thalatha stepped into her brother’s shoes and successfully contested the Ratnapura district in 2004. In the 2020 General Election, she secured her seat in Parliament as an SJB MP with 45,105 votes cast in her favour from the Ratnapura District. In her farewell address, she neither expressed regret nor remorse for leaving the SJB without warning, even though her departure was much anticipated by top party rungers. Neither did she express her sincerest apologies to Ratnapura electorate, the people who had voted her into Parliament as an SJB MP. Every MP in Parliament has every right to resign on a matter of principle and conscience. Thalatha chose to exercise that right. But if nightmarish guilt had haunted her conscience for breaking up the UNP, the question must be asked, why she had remained in Parliament for four guilt-ridden years? Why had she stayed till the sundown of the presidency and the prospect that Parliament will be dissolved no matter who comes, starkly visible to the eye to blare her exit from the SJB and trumpet her entrance to the UNP fold?
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| Poor little rich candidates striving to alleviate povertyFour leading poor little rich candidates, all striving to alleviate poverty amongst the toiling downtrodden masses in Lanka, have finally disclosed their incomes and assets and revealed to the public gaze the kind of austere lifestyles their sparse incomes force them to live. Though they may have billions stashed in some offshore bank vault beyond their present reach for obvious reasons, and have to live on a tuppence instead, having so much and yet so little to show has proved a blessing in disguise at this presidential election. For in this popularity stakes, they seem to think that the one who’s poorest will emerge the likely winner. At least they can console their conscious that what they had revealed as their present monthly incomes, as being honestly true. For the laws, the state has been prevented from revealing is not for public gaze but exclusively reserved for only CID eyes, since it may be used as evidence in some future corruption case. So what the four main candidates have revealed without fear, is likely to stand the test of accuracy, no matter how it is scrutinised.  JVP HANDUNNETTI: ‘It’s a trick by Ranil to show he is poorer than Anura’ Independent candidate President Ranil Wickremesinghe, whose poverty has compelled him to flog a gas cylinder down Sri Kotha road, takes top billing as the poorest candidate having to survive the entire month on meagre income of just 177,000 odd bucks. JVP’s Aruna comes a close second as the next poorest man with a slightly better income of just Rs. 256,000 per month, according to figures published in the Daily Mirror. Closely following him is the marginally better-off Sajith, whose income per month is 295,000 odd bucks. He is the third least poor contender on the block. Now comes the man, Namal, the one selling unblooming buds, incessantly promising the world they’ll blossom someday, if one dreamt hard enough. Yet his business seems to be picking up for he shyly admits, he is making 450,000 odd bucks each blooming month. This unfortunately qualifies him as the least poorest of the lot, and damns his chances as the least likely to win the race. Outside this pathetic circle, contestant Dilith Jayaweera is the least poor of them all hitting the bottom most rung in the election ladder with a whopping Rs. 16,500,000 per month. The income each candidate has declared must be accepted in good faith as been honestly made. But the income Ranil has given as the most poor candidate, has, alas, upset the class of JVP members who have been driven to a frenzy to find out that Anura is not the poorest on the list; and that poor old Ranil has beaten their Anura who wears the best borrowed branded gear to qualify most to hold that envious post. It has so upset JVP’s Sunil Handunnetti to declare, ‘It’s a trick’. Holding a press conference on Thursday, JVP-NPP’s Sunil Hadunnetti declared, “Anura Kumara will probe Ranil’s figures as his first task as President.” To a question asked by reporters, why assets and liabilities declared by the President were less than the assets and liabilities declared by JVP-NPP Presidential candidate Anura Kumara Dissanayake, he said people would not believe that. Isn’t that a typical reaction from the JVP? A rival’s figures are a fake while theirs are genuine. When Anura was photographed shaking hands at the Election Chief’s office on nomination day, it’s the ‘correct gentlemanly gesture’ to make. Had Sajith shook hands with Namal, then it’s ‘They are all friends, mallie’. When Anura goes abroad to collect dollars, ‘it is a donation’. If their rivals went abroad to collect dollars, then ‘it’s a bribe’ It’s the new JVP dictate: Deny the truths of rivals and affirm only JVP lies. |
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