By Parliamentarian Mano Ganeshan, who largely represents the Tamils of Indian origin, was not invited by Minister Jeevan Thondaman to the celebrations that were held at the Sugathadasa Indoor Stadium to commemorate the arrival of Indian Tamils to the plantations 200 years ago.
President Ranil Wickremesinghe’s staff alerted him that Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA) leader Mano Ganesan was not invited.
Although Wickremesinghe was quick to telephone Mano Ganeshan to ask him to attend, he politely but firmly refused to attend.
Understandably, the Indian diplomatic circles in Colombo have taken note of the matter, and it may have an adverse effect on the young Jeevan Thondaman.
Mano Ganeshan later lashed out at Jeevan Thondaman, saying that his party, the TPA, has six members in Parliament while the Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) has only two MPs and that it was a high-handed act to ignore him.
“I have seen the invitations that have gone out, but they are from Thondaman’s Ministry of Water Supply and Estate Infrastructure Development. It should have been a state event. We see this as a political show. It was just a few weeks back that I met Minister Thondaman at an event in Jaffna, but I was not told about the event. So it was clear that they did not want to invite me. In contrast, we invited Minister Thondaman for the TPA sessions, and he attended the event,” said Mano Ganeshan.
