WIMAL WEERAWANSA CALLS MANGALA AND HIS FOLLOWERS POLITICAL REFUGEES AND SAYS NO NEED TO SUPPORT THOSE

(By Walter Jayawardhana)

Calling former cabinet minister Mangala Samaraweera and his followers political refugees Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) parliamentary group leader Wimal Weerawansa said there is no logical reason for his party to take action suitable for the political agenda of those refugees.
The JVP spokesman was replying to Samaraweera who said there was no need for the JVP to waste time by shouting slogans against the government and pasting protesting posters when there was an easier way of joining with them in the parliament and 'sending Mahinda Rajapaksa home'.
Weerawansa said, the role of the JVP was not to take action compatible with the agenda of political characters enjoying refugee status but to fulfill the true aspirations of the people.
At a public rally where he was joined by the United National Party leader Ranil Wickremesinghe and supported behind the scene by former President Chandrika Kumaratunga, Mangala Samaraweera said, that at the coming budget debate in the parliament if the JVP did not vote against the government they would be compelled to demonstrate not only against the Mahinda Rajapaksa government but also against the JVP demanding them to do so.
'The JVP does not take its decisions scared of anybody. I got to tell those who utterly do not understand even that basic matter that I regret very much their inability to construe ,' Weerawansa emphasized. Speaking about Samaraweera's proposed action to coerce the JVP to follow Samaraweera, he said, ' Be my guest, try the impossible and become a joke!'
He said under no circumstances , the JVP would join a traitorous political coalition that takes its decisions according to the interests of vested foreign powers.
He further added, 'JVP will never dance to the tune of those political refugees or for that matter , the government itself.'
He said Samaraweera's statement at the Salgado Esplanade in Anuradhapura depicted the great anger and hatred against the JVP in them as the movement was not allowing themselves to become a party to a traitorous gang supported by vested foreign interests.
But Samaraweera requested the JVP to just join them. 'I have got 107 votes in the parliament. If you join us I will give you six more votes and Mahinda Rajapaksa could be sent home day after tomorrow,' he said.