{"id":91358,"date":"2019-07-13T15:40:39","date_gmt":"2019-07-13T22:40:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=91358"},"modified":"2019-07-13T15:40:39","modified_gmt":"2019-07-13T22:40:39","slug":"elephant-calf-to-be-offered-to-ward-off-pms-bad-luck-ananda-sagara-thero","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2019\/07\/13\/elephant-calf-to-be-offered-to-ward-off-pms-bad-luck-ananda-sagara-thero\/","title":{"rendered":"Elephant calf to be offered to ward off PM\u2019s bad luck &#8211; Ananda Sagara Thero"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Courtesy Adaderana<\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n\n\n<p>Chairman of the \u2018Protect Sri Lanka\u2019 national movement Ven. Pahiyangala Ananda Sagara Thero today handed over a letter to the Prime Minister\u2019s Office against an alleged attempt to transfer an elephant calf from the Ridiyagama safari park to private custody, due to political interests.&nbsp;&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Thero arrived at Temple Trees and somewhat forced his way through the security at the PM\u2019s Office in anger after being told to use a different entrance, resulting in a brief tense situation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He then returned after handing over the letter, seeking to block an alleged illegal attempt to transfer the elephant calf \u2018Isira\u2019 from the park to private custody through political involvement.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Speaking to reporters outside Temple Trees, Ananda Sagara Thero stated that they have received information that two government ministers are preparing to offer an elephant calf, who is roaming freely in the wild, to the custody of the Kataragama Devalaya, to allegedly ward off the Prime Minister\u2019s bad luck\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>He said the elephant calf is very young and still suckling and that he does not approve of that innocent animal being used for the purpose of being anointed for the presidential election.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Thero accused Ministers Gamini Jayawickrama Perera and John Amaratunga of being responsible for this illegal attempt. Ananda Sagara Thero also said he could prove his allegations as he is in possession of the recording of a phone conversation.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Courtesy Adaderana Chairman of the \u2018Protect Sri Lanka\u2019 national movement Ven. Pahiyangala Ananda Sagara Thero today handed over a letter to the Prime Minister\u2019s Office against an alleged attempt to transfer an elephant calf from the Ridiyagama safari park to private custody, due to political interests.&nbsp;&nbsp; The Thero arrived at Temple Trees and somewhat forced [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":true,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-91358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91358","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=91358"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91358\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=91358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=91358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=91358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}