TNA will gain political mileage out of its support to shaky govt: Rajapaksa

Colombo: Sri Lanka’s main Tamil party TNA should not be allowed to achieve through its support to prime minister Ranil Wickremesinghe’s government what it could not accomplish in the three-decade long civil war, ex-President Mahinda Rajapaksa has said, warning that the country cannot be divided.
Addressing a public gathering at Nochchiyagama in the north central province on Sunday, Rajapaksa, now the main opposition leader, said the Tamil National Alliance (TNA) could make a political capital out of its support to the government. “They should not be allowed to achieve through Constitution what they could not achieve through war,” Rajapaksa said. He was hinting at the TNA’s support to Wickremesinghe to end the recent constitutional and political crisis which lasted for over 50 days. Rajapaksa alluded that the TNA would make use of the support to win political autonomy through devious means when Wickremesinghe introduces a new Constitution. “This country cannot be separated or divided, all must work in unison,” Rajapaksa said. The TNA stood against sacking of Wickremesinghe as Prime Minister by President Maithripala Sirisena on October 26 and replacing him with Rajapaksa, triggering an unprecedented constitutional and political crisis.
The TNA had backed Sirisena’s victory in 2015 and anticipated action on introduction of a new Constitution which guaranteed political freedom for Tamil minority in the north and east provinces.
However, Rajapaksa’s opposition has whipped up Sinhala majority nationalism to scuttle the effort. His new party the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) swept the local polls held in February this year in the Sinhala-dominated areas. (PTI)