Mano Ganesan misleads on Kanniyaa heritage dispute: Trincomalee Councillor

[TamilNet, Friday, 14 June 2019, 18:48 GMT]
SL Minister of Hindu Religious Affairs and ‘National’ Integration, Mr Mano Ganesan, was appreciated by Tamils in Trincomalee for confronting the Sinhala Buddhist monks regarding the ancient Tamil heritage of Kanniyaa during his recent trip attending the District Coordinating Committee meeting, on Monday. However, the monks were unmoved. They categorically told Mr Ganesan and the TNA Parliamentarian C. Yogeswaran that it was the Sinhala Buddhist Establishment and no one else in the island – not even the Executive President or the Prime Minister– who had the power to determine the fate of the heritage affairs of Kanniyaa. The minister could very well proceed taking up the issue with Maithiripala Sirisena or Ranil Wickramasinghe in Colombo, but it would not change the ground reality, was the message, says Piratheasa Chapai (PS) councillor Chandirarajah Vipooshan, who was at the meeting.



The SL Minister has gone on record giving interviews to media and making social media posts describing his visit as a successful one. Mr Ganesan has stated that the monks had agreed to reconstruct the Pi'l'laiyaar temple within the same land plot without affecting the remains of the previous foundation, which the monks claim as the remains of an ancient Chaitya mound.

The monks did not show any sign of compromise. “I felt there was no use of trying to convince them as they were firm and unrelenting,” Viphooshanan Chandirarajah told TamilNet on Friday.

The monks were sharply opposing reconstruction of Pi'l'laiyaar temple at the same locality. The temple of Tamils could be allowed at another location only if the monks were agreeable to any future proposals was the message they delivered to Mr Ganesan and all others at the meeting, Mr Chandirarajah said.

Vipooshanan Chandirarajah said the message coming from Mr Ganesan, in the wake of the DCC meeting, was a publicity stunt addressed to his voter base elsewhere in the island.

The Tamil councillor of Trincomalee Town and Gravets said the act of agreeing to relocate the Pi'l'laiyaar temple from its original location would tantamount to “betraying the future Tamil society.”

The Pi'l'laiyaar temple must be reinstated at the proper location where it once stood, said the elected PS Councillor providing a photograph of the original temple.



Mr Chandirarajah belongs to Annamalai Varatharajah Perumal's Social Democratic Party of Tamils (SDPT).

Mr Ganesan, a veteran trade unionist is the leader of the Democratic People's Front and Tamil Progressive Alliance, which is collaborating with the UNP regime in Colombo.



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