BBS calls Tamil national anthem uncontitutional

The Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) has said yesterday that President Maithripala Sirisena’s decision to allow the singing of the Sri Lankan national anthem in Tamil was unconstitutional, according to reports in the Express. BBS General Secretary Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera said that the Lankan constitution has sanctioned only one version and that is in Sinhalese. Any other version would be unconstitutional.  He said that if any change has to be brought about in such a fundamental matter, there would need to be a referendum. Explaining the BBS’s stand its CEO, Dr Dilantha Withanage, told the Indian Express that by raising the language issue, leader of the Democratic Peoples’ Front (DPF) Mano Ganeshan was only sharpening communal differences and creating tension in the country According to Mr Ganeshan President Sirisena had given an assurance  at the last meeting of the National Executive Council (NEC), that he will issue a circular to all institutions to allow singing of the national anthem in Tamil, thus reviving a practice which had been in existence from 1951 to 2010. Ven Gnanasara Thera pointed out that the unconstitutionality of the practice had been pointed out in 2010 and it was stopped. “These issues are brought up purely for political gain. The Tamil problem is deep rooted and cannot be solved by getting the right to sing the national anthem in Tamil,” Withanage was quoted as telling the Express.