Nov 24, 2014
Former general secretary of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party (SLFP), Maithripala Sirisena says that President Mahinda Rajapaksa, after taking over the leadership of the SLFP, had ordered the removal of the names of the party’s founders SWRD Bandaranaike and Sirima Bandaranaike from all party related work.
Sirisena revealed during a political discussion on a private television station that the names of SWRD Bandaranaike and Sirima Bandaranaike were removed from all agendas of SLFP programmes.
“It was the party’s tradition to observe one minute’s silence in memory of the dead party members and the founding leaders SWRD Bandaranaike and Sirima Bandaranaike. However, soon after the change in the party leadership, orders were sent out asking the Bandaranaike names to be removed from the agenda and when the one minute’s silence was announced. That is how much the SLFP policies were changed,” Sirisena said, adding that the current party leadership has completely violated the SLFP policies and principles.
