‘Mano Ganeshan may be daydreaming’

by P. Krishnaswamy

Cabinet spokesman Minister Keheliya Rambukwella said the Government has no intention of re-demarcating provincial boundaries to have five provinces, as alleged by DPF leader Mano Ganeshan.

“Ganeshan may be ‘daydreaming’,” the Minister said adding that even the people whom he claims to represent will not believe him on this issue because they know that the Government is committed towards the rights and political representation of the minority communities”.

Ganeshan has said in a media statement that the Government is planning to repeal the 13th Amendment as a prelude to reducing the number of provinces to five through the re-demarcation of provincial boundaries to change the demographic concentration of the Tamil-speaking people in the North and the East.

Minister Rambukwella said there are different schools of thought with regard to the 13th Amendment with some political ideologists branding it a ‘white elephant’. However, it is part of the Constitution and repealing it or otherwise will be a matter for discussion among Parliamentarians representing all sections of the people and everyone involved in it, he said.

"People who do not have support among their own people and do not represent them in the true sense may say anything out of delusion and frustration”, he said.