{"id":67043,"date":"2020-01-08T00:22:58","date_gmt":"2020-01-08T05:22:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=67043"},"modified":"2020-01-08T00:22:58","modified_gmt":"2020-01-08T05:22:58","slug":"equal-status-of-peoples-belonging-to-different-races-religions-languages-and-cultures-is-not-dependent-on-their-respective-numerical-strengthsays-tna-spokesperon-ma-sumanthiran-mp-in-parliament","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/?p=67043","title":{"rendered":"“Equal status of peoples belonging to different races, religions, languages and cultures is not dependent on their respective numerical strength”Says TNA Spokesperon MA Sumanthiran MP in Parliament"},"content":{"rendered":"

By<\/p>\n

Meera Srinivasan<\/strong><\/p>\n

S<\/strong>ri Lanka\u2019s main Tamil party on Tuesday urged President Gotabaya Rajapaksa not to \u201cregress into naked majoritarianism\u201d, that in the past gave rise to a conflict, resulting in armed hostilities spanning over three decades.<\/p>\n

Addressing Parliament, Jaffna district legislator and the Tamil National Alliance\u2019s (TNA) spokesman M.A. Sumanthiran said the equal status of peoples belonging to different races, religions, languages and cultures is not dependent on their respective numerical strength.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis principle must be acknowledged if our democracy is to survive and indeed flourish, and not regress into naked majoritarianism. Regretfully, in his address to Parliament on 3rd January 2020, the President has articulated such a regressive position,\u201d he said, intervening in the debate on Mr. Rajapaksa\u2019s inaugural address.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Referring to the Ceylon Citizenship Act of 1948, \u201ca rank majoritarian act\u201d that denied Indian origin Tamils citizenship, the Sinhala only Act of 1956, and the two republican \u201cmajoritarian\u201d constitutions enacted in 1972 and 1978, Mr. Sumanthiran said it was only after the \u2018Black July\u2019, the brutal anti-Tamil pogrom in 1983, that India intervened to \u201cturn the tide\u201d.<\/p>\n

13th Amendment<\/strong><\/p>\n

The subsequent constitutional amendment \u2014 popularly known as the 13th Amendment that came out of the Indo-Lanka Accord of 1987 \u2014 acknowledged diversity in the country and led to the creation of provincial councils to help minority communities exercise a measure of self-governance. Referring to several past initiatives towards a political solution to the Tamil national question, the Tamil parliamentarian said PM Mahinda Rajapaksa assured India at least thrice \u2014 when he was President earlier \u2014 that he would \u201cimplement the 13th Amendment in full and build upon it so as to achieve meaningful devolution.<\/p>\n

In his January 3 address, President Rajapaksa sought constitutional and electoral reform for \u201ca strong executive and legislature\u201d and sovereignty of the people. He pledged to \u201calways defend\u201d the unitary status of the country, and \u201cprotect and nurture the Buddha Sasana whilst safeguarding the right of all citizens to practice a religion of their choice.\u201d He made no reference to pending concerns of the war-affected Tamil community, or the Tamil people\u2019s long-standing demand of power devolution.<\/p>\n

However, welcoming President Rajapaksa\u2019s proposal for a new constitution, Mr. Sumanthiran said considerable drafting work had been done during the predecessor government\u2019s time in office, with the full participation of all parties, including Mr. Rajapaksa\u2019s. \u201cWe still have some distance to go, and that is the direction we must continue in if the country is to prosper. Any deviation from that path will spell doom to us all,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Courtesy:The Hindu<\/em><\/p>\n

Tweet<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Meera Srinivasan Sri Lanka\u2019s main Tamil party on Tuesday urged President Gotabaya Rajapaksa not to \u201cregress into naked majoritarianism\u201d, that in the past gave rise to a conflict, resulting in armed hostilities spanning over three decades. Addressing Parliament, Jaffna district legislator and the Tamil National Alliance\u2019s (TNA) spokesman M.A. Sumanthiran said the equal status …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘“Equal status of peoples belonging to different races, religions, languages and cultures is not dependent on their respective numerical strength”Says TNA Spokesperon MA Sumanthiran MP in Parliament’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[12],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67043"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=67043"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67043\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":67044,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/67043\/revisions\/67044"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=67043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=67043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dbsjeyaraj.com\/dbsj\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=67043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}