Tamil politicians blame SL Military for enticing Sinhala students with triumphalist chauvinism

It was a section of Sinhala students who went against the decision taken by the Jaffna University administration to allow Kandyan dance as a stage-event inside the venue hall and traditional Tamil music in the welcome procession outside the hall on Saturday. It was the SL military intelligence that enticed the Sinhala students to act in contrary to the decision, said Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, the leader of Tamil National People’s Front (TNPF). The SL Police on Wednesday arrested a Jaffna University student leader merely on a complaint made to them. The SL police has acted without conducting an initial investigation, he said. In the meantime, EPRLF Leader Suresh Premachandran said there was no point in punishing Sinhala or Tamil students. Instead, the investigations should focus on how these students were manipulated by the external forces to indulge in violence, the former MP said.



Suresh Premachandran said that the mental make-up of the Sinhala polity was such that it was projecting the message of ‘military victory’ over Tamils in the island.

The message being passed to Sinhala students and to the Sinhala masses was that the Sinhalese had won the Tamils. The implied message was that Tamils must now be their slaves. These ‘victorious’ feelings are used by the SL military to brainwash the Sinhala students attending the universities in the North-East to act against Tamils, Mr Premachandran said.

Mr Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam said there was reliable information that the Sinhala students were utilized with the costumes and tools from a Sri Lankan military camp in Jaffna.

The SL Police was also acting upon one-sided complaints and arrested a Tamil student leader. There was plenty of witnesses that revealed that the student leader was in fact attacked by the Sinhala students and did not indulge in violence at all, he said.