{"id":41543,"date":"2015-02-15T21:33:27","date_gmt":"2015-02-16T03:33:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=41543"},"modified":"2015-02-15T05:18:52","modified_gmt":"2015-02-15T12:18:52","slug":"reenactment-of-king-soththisena-and-chaththa-gahaka-janthu-434-ad-episode","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2015\/02\/15\/reenactment-of-king-soththisena-and-chaththa-gahaka-janthu-434-ad-episode\/","title":{"rendered":"Reenactment of King Soththisena and Chaththa Gahaka Janthu (434 AD) Episode"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Those who don\u2019t learn from history are condemned to repeat their mistakes. Signs are up on the horizon that history is about to repeat in eerie coincidence. D\u00e9j\u00e0 vu! Following the death of King Mahanama of Anuradhapura, his son Soththisena became king in 434 AD. He was born of a lesser queen of South Indian origin and didn\u2019t appreciate the delicate issues and sensitivities in the Sinhala nation. His ministers acted in abject disregard of local values and Buddhist interests. As a result, the Maha Sangha complained to the king and associates. The king took no notice of the request. Soththisena\u2019s half-sister born to the chief queen of King Mahanama had Soththisena assassinated and she helped her husband Chaththagahaka Janthu to the throne.<\/p>\n

What happens in Sri Lanka today is somewhat a repetition of this episode in history. President Sirisena\u2019s cabinet members are on a vengeful mission against Buddhists. Road adjacent to the Dalada Maligawa was closed for the past 25 years for the safety of pilgrims and for the orderly movement of things. It has been reopened to traffic. Buddhist clergy protested it but to no avail. Some non-Buddhist ministers are on a mission to defame Buddhists. Cabinet member Ramanayaka and goons invaded a Buddhist meditation centre and maliciously claimed it was a luxury resort of sorts. The UNP Cabinet also has Mrs Senanayaka who once claimed that \u2018Buddhism was the problem of Sri Lanka\u2019! Yet another very senior minister Hakim called Buddhist monks \u2018terrorists\u2019. This is the make-up of the present Cabinet. In addition the top post overlooking the fiscal and monetary policy of the economy has been given to a person with no appreciation of Sri Lankan Buddhist values as well as the top post of the judiciary.<\/p>\n

However unlike in the past, the Maha Sangha is not taking an active interest in protesting these dastardly moves. The leadership of Buddhists has been heavily politicized as they too identify themselves into the green and blue camps. It is the misfortune of the nation to have a Buddhist leadership that is silent when these malpractices take place. However, if action were to be taken against the Cabinet of President Sirisena as action was taken against errant king Soththisena, it will be Chandrika who may succeed him by way of her manifold gimmicks from her handbag! Should the nation stand idle when its core values are compromised?<\/p>\n

It was reported that the anti-Buddhist sections of the government plans to further dilute the Buddhist vote by spinning out the JHU to contest alone at the forthcoming general elections. In doing so the nationalist vote will be divided between the new Mahinda camp and the JHU costing both parties votes and seats.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dilrook Kannangara Those who don\u2019t learn from history are condemned to repeat their mistakes. Signs are up on the horizon that history is about to repeat in eerie coincidence. D\u00e9j\u00e0 vu! Following the death of King Mahanama of Anuradhapura, his son Soththisena became king in 434 AD. He was born of a lesser queen of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[44],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-41543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dilrook-kannangara"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=41543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/41543\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=41543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=41543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=41543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}