Kandy March II

By Manekshaw-2016-07-23

Leader of the Opposition and Tamil National Alliance (TNA) Leader R. Sampanthan made a timely warning at a meeting held in Mannar on the intended Kandy march to be staged by the Joint Opposition (JO) against the present government.

Sampanthan was speaking at an interactive discussion in Mannar last week where he came across several 'mind boggling' questions on the present state of Tamil politics and on the failures of the present government in fulfilling the pledges made by it with regard to the political aspirations of Tamils.

Some of the participants at the Mannar meeting even told Sampanthan that the TNA Parliamentarians should quit Parliament if the government was reluctant to settle the Tamil issues, before the end of this year.

However, the Leader of the Opposition was cautious and displayed his political maturity by responding to the comments made at the Mannar meeting which was more a hard-hitting one at the TNA hierarchy.
Sampanthan defending the political stance of the TNA told the gathering in Mannar that though the TNA hierarchy was very much disappointed by the backtracking of the present government from the pledges it made to the people in the North and the East, the people in the North and the East should conduct themselves in a sensible manner by not giving room for the extremist elements to take the upper hand.

Chauvinist forces
Referring to the extremist elements in the South, the Leader of the Opposition without any hesitation pointed his finger at the intended Kandy march to be staged by former President Mahinda Rajapaksa and his 'back up force' the Joint Opposition (JO).
Sampanthan's warning about the chauvinist forces came in the backdrop of former President Mahinda Rajapaksa describing the clashes that occurred at the University of Jaffna a week ago as the violence against the Sinhalese students.
Realizing former President Rajapaksa's political bankruptcy and his attempt to give a communal touch to the untoward incidents which occur in the North and the East, Sampanthan at the Mannar meeting warned on the sinister attempts of the chauvinist elements and on the intended Kandy march to be staged by the JO.

The famous first Kandy march was launched 59 years ago against the Bandaranaike – Chelvanayakam Pact in October 1957 by the United National Party (UNP) led by late President J.R. Jayewardene.
However, the Kandy march of J.R. Jayewardene which commenced from Colombo on 3 October 1957 and expected to conclude at the Dalada Maligawa a week later, with political rallies on its way to Kandy was disrupted following various types of obstacles created by the supporters of late Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike who was in power at that time.

S.D. Bandaranayake
Gampaha Member of Parliament S.D. Bandaranayake was in the forefront to prevent J.R. Jayewardene's Kandy march and the SLFP Parliamentarian who was the staunchest loyalist of late Prime Minister S.W.R.D. Bandaranaike, with his supporters stopped J.R. Jayewardene's Kandy march at Imbulgoda resulting in the UNP abandoning the march.
Following the success in stopping J.R. Jayewardene's Kandy march at Imbulgoda, the Sri Lanka Freedom Party's Gampaha Parliamentarian S.D. Bandaranayake was even described in the political circles at that time as the 'Hero of Imbulgoda'.
When the Kandy march was launched by J.R. Jayewardene in 1957, TNA Leader R. Sampanthan would have been a young law student at the Sri Lanka Law College.
Therefore, coming through the annals of the political history of Sri Lanka and based on his vast experience while urging the Tamil political elements to be cautious over the chauvinists in the country, Sampanthan had also warned about the intended Kandy march to be staged by the Joint Opposition.

As far as the 1957 Kandy march, of J.R. Jayewardene, was concerned the aggressive reaction to the march surfaced in Jaffna even after nearly twenty years when J.R. Jayewardene as Leader of the Opposition addressed a public rally in Jaffna Esplanade in the vicinity of the Jaffna Dutch Fort in 1975.
The mega Jaffna rally of J.R. Jayewardene was attended by UNP stalwarts K.W. Devanayagam, A.C.S. Hameed and Gamini Dissanayake along with several other prominent UNP members.
When J.R. Jayewardene started addressing the meeting several youngsters seated in front of the stage questioned him 'now you have come to Jaffna and speak on Tamil-Sinhala unity. But what made you to stage the Kandy march in 1957 to disrupt the Banda-Chelva pact?'

J.R. Jayewardene appealing for calm from those who raised the question replied that he didn't carry out the Kandy march with the intention of harming Tamil Sinhala unity.
But the aggressive crowd didn't allow the former President to continue with his speech and started pelting stones at the stage. They also shouted at Jayewardene calling him a 'humbug'.
In 1957 when J.R. Jayewardene's march proceeded towards Kandy, Gampaha Parliamentarian S.D. Bandaranayake's supporters pelted stones at those who participated in the march at Imbulgoda.

However, it was interesting to note that even twenty years after the Kandy march, J.R. Jayewardene and his colleagues were pelted with stones when it was mentioned about the march in Jaffna in 1975.
It's nearly after fifty years former President Mahinda Rajapaksa's Joint Opposition intends to stage another Kandy march to show its opposition to the government.

As TNA Leader Sampanthan has already warned in Mannar about Mahinda Rajapaksa's plans to stage the Kandy march and the sinister moves behind it, the veteran Leader of the Opposition's warning on the intended Kandy march could be considered as a wakeup call to the countrymen to stand against all dirty tricks in politics to undermine peace and reconciliation in the countr