DINESH GUNAWARDENA TELLS THE GOVERNMENT IS OPPOSED TO GRANT LEAVE TO FOUR TNA MEMBERS ABSENT FOR LAST 3 MONTHS
Posted on June 10th, 2009
By Walter Jayawardhana
The Parliament of Sri Lanka postponed a decision to grant leave to four alleged proxies of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) who had been absent for the last three months when the Chief Government Whip Dinesh Gunawardena opposed the proposal when it came up before the legislature , Wednesday June 10.
The four LTTE proxies representing the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Selvam Adaikkalanathan, V. Kajendran, V. Jeyanandamurthy and Mrs. Padmini Sithambaranathan wanted leave from parliament for three months.
The Chief Government Whip , the Minister of Urban Development and leader of the Mahajana Eksath Peramuna, Dinesh Gunawardena opposing the leave application said the parliamentarians had acted against the constitution of Sri Lanka by supporting the LTTE.
Several government members supported Dinesh and they demanded to know the current whereabouts of the four TNA MP’s.
The Speaker W. J. M. Lokubandara put off granting leave until Friday pending investigations.
The TNA is accused entering the parliament by stuffing ballot boxes and impersonations using the armed cadres of the LTTE at a time when there was no law and order in the North and East of the country. Having becoming political pariahs by turning themselves to be a rubber stamp parliamentary group of the now defunct LTTE, they are much disliked by the other Tamil groups. TULF leader V. Ananda Sangaree said they would not even touch them with a barge pole when the TNA secretly sent words to join the Democratic Tamil National Alliance to contest the Jaffna MC elections.(