This is not the first time the Sri Lankan national anthem is in news. In 2015, then-President Maithripala Sirisena’s decision to allow the singing of the anthem in Tamil had sparked a row. In fact, his move was attacked by his own party, the Sri Lankan Freedom Party (SLFP).įollowing this, in 2016 the national anthem was sung in Tamil for the first time since 1949. The move had drawn opposition from former president Mahinda Rajapaksa (Gotabaya’s brother). The Sri Lankan Tamils constitute a minority in the Sinhalese-dominated island nation. Since 1983, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), a guerilla organisation, waged a war against the Sri Lankan government, which ended in 2009. Their demand was to carve out a separate state for Tamils in northeast Sri Lanka. In November 2019, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, best known as the man who crushed the Tamil Tigers, became President. While he enjoyed the support of the Sinhalese-Buddhists, the Tamils and Muslims largely voted for Sajith Premadasa, the New Democratic Front (NDF) candidate.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |