JVP accuses govt. of arousing communal feelings for political gain

By Saman Indrajith

The JVP yesterday called on people to beware of persons and organisations that aroused communal feelings.

Addressing the media at the party headquarters, at Pelawatte, JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva alleged that the government had lost its popularity so it had got its crony individuals and supportive civil and religious organisations to arouse communal disharmony as a diversionary tactic.

“This is a government that antagonised Tamil people by arousing racism. Thereafter, it did the same by playing the race card against Muslim people. All they did for the cheap objective of political expediency. Now, it is trying to pit Buddhists against the Catholics. We call on people not to fall prey for those tricks,” Silva said.

The JVP General Secretary said that the government did not have a sound or feasible plan to bring about solutions to people’s problems. “Whenever there is a public opinion against this government, their modus operandi is to resort to communal disharmony. We still can remember how various groups including some members in the religious community, came out accusing the Muslim community responsible for the ills in society. Those racist elements played a major role to get Sinhala Buddhist votes for this government. After the election, those groups went silent. We see they have come out again. This time they spread antagonistic feelings against the Catholics and the Cardinal. We saw how the Cardinal took the lead to prevent a communal clash soon after the Easter Sunday carnage pleading with the Catholics to simmer down their anger. The Cardinal appealed to people not to resort to further violence and showed them that there would be other means to find justice. We have utmost respect for him for his intervention at that time. Now, nearly two years since this President came to power but the investigations into the Easter Sunday terror attacks are out of track. Justice for the victim is still a distant dream. Therefore, the Cardinal urged the government to conduct investigations properly. The government’s response is to unleash its civil society forces to criticize the Cardinal. Those in the government know the potent of rousing racism and it could divert people’s attention from other burning issues. The government could cover its failures and economic crisis behind another communal clash. We call on people to realise that we are passing an uneasy time and not to fall prey for the schemes to cause communal disharmony. They have to realise that communal disharmony is perpetuated by those with the government to save it,” Silva said.