‘Deliberations should be scientific and practical’:

Equality and dignity among communities – PSC’s aim-Minister D.E.W. Gunasekara

by P. Krishnaswamy

The newly appointed Parliamentary Select Committee (PSC) should strive for equality and dignity among communities while remaining free of communal discord, Senior Minister of Human Resources D.E.W. Gunasekara told the Sunday Observer.

Gunasekara, a member of the PSC representing the CP said that the ultimate objective should be to get at least 60 percent consensus among political parties for a solution within a unitary Sri Lankan state. Consensus of the remaining 40 percent can be looked into at a later stage, he said.

The deliberations should be based on scientific and practical aspects taking into account the national, regional and global realities of the day rather than paying heed to narrow political or religious sentiments, he said.

Since independence successive governments and political leaders tried to evolve a solution but their efforts were thwarted due to one reason or the other, he said. The PSC should also take up the question of doing away with the Concurrent List of the 13th Amendment which caused conflicts between the Centre and the PCs, he said. Contrary to what some hardliners try to project there is no Indian factor in our efforts to work out our own constitutional and political solution and in fact, India had helped us in our efforts to eliminate the 30-year-long terrorist problem, he said.

Over 700,000 Sri Lankans fled the country following the July ’83 disturbances and around 300,000 of them went to Tamil Nadu, he said adding that this would not have happened had a solution been offered. Our politicians should comprehend this phenomenon, he said.