COLOMBO: It’s the Kali season in Sri Lanka. Bhadrakali Amman temples across the island are celebrating the Ther or car festival. Top-rung Sinhalese political leaders have performed poojas to ward off adverse influences and destroy political enemies. To top it all, the Bhadrakali Amman Kovil in Chilaw, north of Colombo, has declared that it would conduct animal sacrifice on Monday, in brazen defiance of a three-year-old law banning the practice, and ignoring loud protests from Hindu and Buddhist leaders.
The pooja frenzy was kicked off by President Mahinda Rajapaksa himself on August 13, when he went to the Mayurpathy Sri Bhadrakali Amman Devasthanam for worship, apparently to ward off mounting pressure from the West and possibly Tamil Nadu on the ethnic issue. Rajapaksa stood with his eyes closed and his palms placed together against his chest as the Kurukkal placed a red tilakam on his forehead.
On August 20, Anoma Fonseka, wife of sacked Army chief General eral Sarath Fonseka, was the very picture of piety as she worshiped at the Kali temple in Modera.
She broke coconuts, an act commonly associated in Sri Lanka with wreaking vengeance on a tormentor or rival, in this case, the Rajapaksa government, which cashiered her husband recently.