How many times the lessons have to be learnt?

| by L.Annadoure

( December 26, Puducherry , Sri Lanka Guardian) While perusing the article under the caption ‘LLRC ignored rape Victims in its report” written by Mr.Pearl Thevanaygam where a picture found to depict the President Mahinda Rajapakse sitting before a Hindu priest who is officiating the religious rites and the president Mahinda Rajapakse in all religiosity going through the rituals performed by the priest. It is really heartening to note that the PresidentMahinda Rajapakse a Buddhist a constitutional head who has to see according a foremost place for Buddhism in the land and cause fostering it, should propitiate the deities of Hindu pantheon ?

The whole pumpkin cannot be hidden in a morsel of cooked rice! The Souls of the Dead will haunt the memories of perpetrators ever long !

But the picture as such may evoke a doubt whether the purpose of such propitiation to the Hindu deities is to get boons and bounties for himself his kith and kin or for prosperity and well being of entire nation comprising people of different ethnicities who practice and profess different religious ways. It is equally doubtful whether other professors of Religions could practice and profess their religious tenet with full volition, free Will and without let or hindrance in Sri Lanka and there are dearth of instances to attest to the fact the military meddling with religious lives with impunity and one such recent instance is the Sri Lanka’s military storming into the Hindu Temples and interfering with and confronting devotees and the officiating priests in the Temples and further there is another recent of military people issuing orders priests that the Temple bells should not toll and a couple of months ago there was yet another news that a Muslim place of worship whose presence and proximity since felt to have done a desecration to a Vihar, the said Muslim place of worship was demolished by the belligerent destroyers at the behest of pious monks.

Buddhism does not prohibit other Religious sects professing and practicing their tenets and Buddhism does not preach oppression and repression against the professors of other Religions if I am not wrong in such proposition? The president Mahinda Rajapaksha who appearing with ash smeared on his forehead may not possess in him that much of bigotry of the monks because he craves for indulgence and protection of Hindu Gods and let us hope his act is not pretentions to tolerance for other religious sects? But whether he tolerates the religious observances of devotees other Religion or not his colleague the cultured Minister will not tolerate and therefore he will not permit observance of such rites because he has to uphold Constitutional provisions at any cost and Sri Lankan Constitution

does not permit it and he would directly confront the devotees and prohibit continuance of such rites!

Article 9 of the Constitution of Sri Lanka would state the Republic of Sri Lanka is giving a foremost place to Buddhism and to venture a statement that a Republic consisting a populace of different of ethnic origins who practicing and professing different Religious tenets have given consent collectively according a foremost place to Buddhism in the land should only be unilateral statement. But however it is sanction imposed by Majority. Whether one agrees with it or opposes it, it has been destined to be a law of the majority Will and that is perhaps why in pursuance such constitutional sanction Hindu deities are being replaced by statues of Buddha hurriedly in the Northern and Eastern part in particular and what a Temple today may turn into a Vihar tomorrow nay overnight.

I have learnt from the Web site as to The President Mahindha Rajapakshe saying that meaning of democracy is of the Rulers reaching the people. Such statement may be true provided the Rulers have really reached the Ruled. The Ruled try to reach the Rulers but they step back and keep distance because they are racially superior and the Rulers and their people are sacred Cow. It is the hardened Heart that must mellow, thaw and change finally and a Heart which does not discriminate between people on the ground of Race, Religion and Language alone could reach the peoples’ Heart and a Nation that lauds, fosters and gives a predominant position to its Religion will find it difficult to reach the Hearts of the people who profess their religious tenets.

Religion is not a jural entity and assuring to all religions the rights granted by Articles 10 and 14(1) (e) will be and is a misnomer. Perennial interference and restrictions with the rights of other Religious denominations from worshipping their deities are acts breaching the Constitutional assurance and State can breach the assurance as its whims and fancies would dictate. Articles 10 to 14 are not meant for the Tamils.

At present the State is the blatant violator of Articles 10 to 14. There is no practicability in Articles 10 to 14. What really is a political opinion as incorporated under Article 12? Tamils are not entitled to have a political opinion and political opinion is one that is formed and determined by the Majority Will.

The State may boast of having incorporated Article 10 but Tamils are not entitled to freedom of thought, conscience and if the military thinks that the Tamils are thinking then greasy ghosts will crease their peace and tranquility, their women will have to run to protect themselves and save their modesty being molested nay to avert physical violations to their person they must run but military will out run, capture them and rape them and when remonstrated then there would come white van and then the disappearance of van with the remonstrator and before the van could come there would surely be subjection to all forms of torture as guaranteed under Article 11. How dare you are to have formed an opinion against the opinion of Majority and formation of an opinion in itself tantamount to commission of a terrorist Act. One Law will give place to another law more rigorous then the earlier one.

Who said Tamils are not equal before law and who said all that are enshrined in Article 12 are not high sounding and precious? The president Mahindha Rajapakshe used to speak sarcastically that being alive could be the only right available for the Tamils and other rights are not guaranteed to them. Articles 10 to 14 are sacrosanct and highly precious and they are not terms of guarantee for the Tamils and therefore they are to be kept under lock and key. I remember reading in the news that the Commission was partisan in its attitude and its approach was mostly selective in hearing the aggrieved persons. How could it be expected that a Commission which has been appointed by the State would act against the interests of the State and therefore there is nothing strange about the preparation and presentation of it and such a report is destined to be submitted and it has been submitted and it has been submitted for the appeasement of Sri Lanka’s Guardian Angels. The State will wash its hands of the matter but learning of lessons will continue and the learnt lessons will be forgotten soon and then again lessons must be learnt at the expense of lives of the Tamils who would be herded like cattle, driven into cattle pounds and slaughtered mercilessly by bombardment with weapons whose usage is prohibited by international sanctions but any way the weapons that were heaped upon gratis should be tested and they were tested with the lives of the Tamils because they were terrorists. History tells us that Jews were herded into gas chambers and then given shower bath of poisonous chemicals but Tamils were lucky enough not to have been herded into chambers but they had been given showers of cluster and chemical bombs while being in the open. How many genocidal paradigms, the holocaust, Srebrenica, East Timor, Myanmar Kosovo and a few more that were enacted and practiced against Tamils and are being perpetrated endlessly? There are about 90,000 widows, a land full of widows! Were went the corpses of the 330,000 dead who were driven into narrow strip of land ,Mullivaikal? Shallow graves were dug, corpses dumped and sands bulldozed on and over the corpses whose Gods are being propitiated now for atonement, a retribution? The whole pumpkin cannot be hidden in a morsel of cooked rice! The Souls of the Dead will haunt the memories of perpetrators ever long !