by

Jayantha Samarasinghe

I visited Jaffna on 20th to participate in the Dr Rajani Thiranagama Memorial events. I visited the Jaffna Medical Faculty at Tirunelvely & found that permission has been denied for the commemoration meeting.

The organisers have hurriedly made arrangements at Veerasingham hall near the Police station and I rushed there.

The procession for peace, democracy & social justice due in the afternoon too had been cancelled as it was not allowed by the authorities, in the true spirit of democracy it seems !!!.

We were told that permission for the seminar on 21st morning too was first granted but was being reviewed later by the authorities. Were the authorities fearing a woman who died 25 years ago ?

Naturally, as she was no ordinary woman, but an exceptionally brilliant intellectual and an academician who honoured & fought for the human rights to the core.

Denying permission for the venues & the procession was a big mistake by the authorities which violated the rights of people who flocked to Jaffna to grieve over the death of Rajani, who stood for rights of ordinary people.

I was fortunate to be among the large crowd of learned people, university lecturers, doctors, medical specialists, Rajani’s sisters, former students, her husband etc who attended the event.

Many people from Colombo as well as from abroad attended this well organised event and Rajani in death seemed to be more powerful and immortal.

It was great to get to know the UTHR-J members who fearlessly and unbiasedly let the world knew what was happening in Jaffna.

We are now shedding tears for ourselves sister, 25 years after your death.

Courtesy:The Island