Tamil UNP state minister refuses to host Sri Lankan flag

by admin
Feb 8, 2016

The UNP's Vijayakala Maheswaran, the state minister for child affairs has refused to hoist the Sri Lankan flag at a function in Jaffna on Monday night.

Ms Maheswaran, who is Tamil, was the chief guest at the opening of a science lab in the Meesalai Veerasingam College in Thenmaratchi, in the Jaffna district.

"I have been a member of parliament for six years. However not one day have I hoisted the lion flag out of principle and I will not give up on this principle," she said.

Ms Maheswaran's husband, also a UNP MP, was killed by government-aligned paramilitaries in 2008.

Sri Lanka's flag is seen as controversial by many Tamils in the North-East of the island, due to its Sinhala Buddhist symbolism and its use throughout the armed conflict for state triumphalism and oppression.

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