‘Amude’ also tried in Parliament

There has been furor on the dress code of NC Leader Athaullah who came to the parliament in a decent Afghan-style dress. I could remember in the years of yore, our friendly Dahanayake from my former electorate Galle, tried to come to the Parliament in an Amude, but cannot remember what followed. He tried to enter the Parliament in Amude (Span Cloth worn by farmers) to protest against the imposition by Mrs Bandaranaike in 1964 of a ration of two yards of textiles per month per person, at a time of grave shortage of foreign exchange.

 When Gandhi came to the British Parliament many decades ago – MPs referred to him as “Naked Pakir walking down the British parliament steps”, as he was dressed in 3/4th trouser style cloth for the down portion, and top part of the body was naked, except for a thin shawl draped over the body exposing parts of his chest. Also in the recent past an ex-president was attired in Modi Dress ( I am not sure if he came to the parliament) for the top part (similar to the top part of Afghan dress) and no one in the government like MP Marikkar or Harin Fernando protested.

Is the so-called Kapatiya Dress in white only admissible in parliament? What about full suits worn by brown sahibs / ex-Royal politicians – this is also a British dress; so why make a big fuss about an Afghan style decent dress. Kandyans are not protesting when down south bride grooms wear the Nilame style dress, which is trending these days?

SUMITH DE SILVA