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Ilankai Thamil Arasu Katchchi (ITAK) leader S Shiritharan extended his support to presidential candidate P Ariyanenthiran despite his party yet to make a final decision on which candidate it will support in the upcoming election.

Mr Shritharan met Tamil ‘common candidate’ Ariyanenthiran, who is also a Central Committee member of ITAK, on Thursday at his residence in Jaffna and declared his support for his candidacy.

Mr Shritharan stressed that it was his personal decision to support Mr Ariyanenthiran considering the ‘fate of the party’ and the well-being of the people who elected him to Parliament.

Meanwhile, the ITAK Central Committee, which met recently, called for an explanation from Mr Ariyanenthiran over his decision to agree to become the candidate without the approval of the party.

The initiative to form the Tamil People’s General Council to field a ‘common candidate’ at the upcoming polls came following an understanding reached between seven political parties and seven civil society outfits, which signed an MoU on July 22.

Describing the move as “selfish and unwise,” one senior ITAK leader said the party was considering asking their cadres and supporters to make their own presidential choice – just like the leader (Shritharan) did – rather than coming to a collective agreement.

Northern fisherfolk sell Chinese rice donation on pavement as they cannot stick to it

Northern fisher families who received the generous Chinese ‘humanitarian assistance’ of packets of rice recently, are selling them on the pavement as they are not familiar with how to make ‘Chinese sticky rice’.

The Chinese rice variety, which is different when it comes to preparation, style, and taste compared to local Naadu types, gave a hard time to local fisherfolk who tried the same methods of cooking with the Chinese donated rice.

The Chinese rice donation was among the Rs 1.5 billion worth of humanitarian assistance, which includes a prefabricated housing scheme and fishing equipment for fisherfolk in the Northern and Eastern provinces.

The three aid packages, amounting to Rs 500 million each, would be the largest offered by China in the two provinces, where India has also invested heavily in development, livelihood and investment projects.

One local fisherman who sold the donated Chinese rice through an underground agent also expressed concerns with one of the other donated items – prefabricated housing, saying this is not conducive to living in a province that records higher temperatures for most of the months.

He had an interesting suggestion: give the items to politicians and officials.
Since most of the temporary shelters or vaadi houses erected on coastal lines to store fishing equipment caught fire due to unknown reasons, he is of the view that these prefab houses can be used as vaadi houses for better utilisation.

Pic by Pradeep Pathirana

Ranil delighted at reunion with his Royal teacher

President Ranil Wickremesinghe was in for a pleasant surprise when he addressed a public rally in Batticaloa yesterday.

On hand to greet and bless him was B Sivalingam who was a teacher at Royal College, Colombo, during the time the President was a student there.

Mr Sivalingam (98), who lives in retirement at his home in Batticaloa, had wanted to attend the meeting after hearing that the President
would be present. Delighted at the chance to meet one of his teachers, the President made sure that Mr Sivalingam remained seated next to him throughout the meeting.

Among the many students taught by Mr Sivalingam are Prime Minister Dinesh Gunawardena, Anura Bandaranaike, and former minister Malik Samarawickrema.

EC puts minister in vegetable soup

As the Election Commission goes through the final weeks of preparation for the presidential election, it has not been short of the lighter moments while getting on with its serious work.

Permission had been sought by one of the cabinet ministers and his organisers to transport a load of vegetables via train and to mark the event with a ceremony. The Commission had responded that it had no objections to transporting the vegetables but said the organisers could not go ahead with the ceremony as it would be seen as promoting a candidate.

The minister has gone silent thereafter.

On the day of the nomination, permission had been sought by one of the key candidates to permit a Buddhist monk to visit the Election Commission and tie ‘Pirith noola’ on his hand. The Commission got in touch with the monk, telling him to consider the plight of the Commission if the other candidates too made a similar request. The Commission, however, said it had no objection if the religious observance could be performed outside the premises and the candidate be then sent in.

In another case, soon after nomination, a religious ceremony was planned at the Independence Square in Colombo with a large number of Buddhist monks in attendance. However, the EC got wind of the development and had to intervene to have it stopped despite pleas by the organisers. EC officials told the organisers that they could go ahead with the religious ceremony, provided all 39 candidates were allowed to attend it. There were no takers for that suggestion.

Muhammad Ilyas (78), an independent candidate who handed over nominations to contest the September 21 presidential election, passed away this week. He died of a heart attack. The number of candidates contesting the election is now down to 38 with Mr. Ilyas’ demise.

Senthil’s photo op at Tamil Nadu Murugan conference

A two-day event organised by the Tamil Nadu government under the theme “Global Muthamizh Murugan Conference” began yesterday to honour Lord Murugan, better known as Lord Skanda. The event attracted devotees from across the globe.

The conference organised by the TN Department of Tourism, Culture and Religious Endowments also came under criticism by religious bodies affiliated with the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
They alleged that this event was meant to attract a Hindu vote base by the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK).

Among the attendees was a familiar figure Eastern Province Governor Senthil Thondaman – who attended the event as a guest from Sri Lanka. He also made sure to take photographs with local, foreign, and religious dignitaries at the conference.

Angry sidelined candidates hit out at PAFFREL

Not all the candidates are happy that the presidential election debates proposed by independent election monitors are confined to five or six of those who are seen as the front runners.

Independent candidate and former Sports Minister Roshan Ranasinghe is among those who are not happy. He was vocal in criticising the move, especially the debate organised by the election monitoring group, People’s Action for Free and Fair Elections (PAFFREL). Another independent presidential candidate, Janaka Ratnayake, too was angry that he was being left out and lodged a formal complaint with the Election Commission expressing concerns over the selection process for a presidential candidate debate organised by PAFFREL.

Senior SJB member wants brawling Digambaram as bodyguard

Samagi Jana Balawegaya Nuwara Eliya District parliamentarian and Workers’ National Front leader Palani Digambaran was in the news in recent days –obviously for the wrong reasons this time – following a brawl on live telecast with one-time SJB parliamentarian Velu Kumar, who switched sides.

The programme was hosted by a private broadcasting station this week. Mr Digambaran was seen springing out of his seat and pouncing on the throat of a surprised Mr Kumar. It had all the elements of a Tamil Nadu movie thriller.

The subjects that triggered the scuffle for both MPs representing the plantation sector are “restaurant bar licence permits” and “drugs,” which both of the parliamentarians accused each other of being involved in.

It was just last week that Mr Kumar decided to extend his support to President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s candidacy even though he attended meetings in previous weeks as a member of the Tamil Progressive Alliance, which declared its support to Opposition Leader Sajith Premadasa.

The brawl was a talking point during the meeting Mr Premadasa hosted for newspaper editors and heads of electronic media this week. Mr Digambaran was also scheduled to attend the meeting but did not turn up.

A senior SJB member who was allocated a seat next to Mr Digambaram inquired from the staff of his whereabouts and later quipped, “I am waiting for Mr Digambaram as I would like to appoint him as my bodyguard.”