COLOMBO: Northern Province Chief Minister C.V.Wigneswaran on Wednesday strongly denied that the Tamil Makkal Peravai (TMP), which he heads, is a political organization in competition with the Tamil National Alliance (TNA). But at the same time he pointed out that the TNA has reneged on its commitment to securing for the minority Tamils the right to self-determination.
Speaking at a meeting of members of the Northern Provincial Council (NPC) belonging to the TNA in Jaffna, Wigneswaran said that there was a marked difference between the TNA’s manifesto for the NPC elections in October 2013 and its manifesto for the August 2015 Lankan parliamentary elections. While in the 2013 manifesto, the TNA had pledged to fight for the Tamils’ right to self determination, in the 2015 parliamentary polls manifesto, this was conspicuously absent.
Wigneswaran recalled that he had been given an advance copy of the 2015 manifesto on a Friday with a request for his comments. But before he could give his comments, the TNA officially released its manifesto on Saturday morning.
The Chief Minister of Lanka’s lone Tamil majority province said that the TNA’s three-man committee to draft the party’s proposals in regard to Lanka’s new constitution should look into the discrepancy between the 2013 and 2015 manifestos.
However, Wigneswaran maintained that he had not joined the TMP to act against the TNA. He said that he had agreed to join it and head it, only after getting an assurance that it will never become a political party, and that its sole purpose would be fight for the cause of the Tamils.
Meanwhile, the TNA’s leader in the Lankan parliament and the official Leader of the Opposition in parliament, R.Sampanthan, told Express that while there is concern about Wigneswaran’s links with the TMP, there is no move to remove him from the office of Chief Minister as of now.
Recently, in an apparent effort to forestall any action against him, Wigneswaran mended fences with Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe. When Wickremesinghe (who called Wigneswaran a liar ) visited Jaffna on Pongal day, the CM welcomed him with much fanfare and sat next to him, usurping the seat allotted to former President Chandrika Kumaratunga.