Pillay report next week: Western powers likely to base resolution on it
By Our Political Editor-Sunday, February 23, 2014
President seeks aid from deities while Govt. team discusses possibility of TRC with South Africa; TNA makes no commitment Rajapaksa tells ministers to mind their tongue; UNP's no-confidence motion will focus on PM and the heroin imports
Even the help of deities is being sought to defeat the latest United States backed resolution on Sri Lanka at the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva next month. President Mahinda Rajapaksa flew from Colombo to Nuwara Eliya in his Air Force helicopter on Friday to take part in a special Pooja according to Hindu rites.
The ten-day long ritual including the lighting up of the sacrificial fire has been playing out at the private residence of Minister Arumugam Thondaman, leader of the Ceylon Workers Congress, at his tea plantation, Wavendon Estate. Nine Nambudiri Brahmins have been specially flown in from Kerala in South India to officiate in the ceremonies, costing a lot of money. Helping in arranging it was a businesswoman from that Indian state. It was Thondaman who invited Rajapaksa to the event since he was also dedicating it for victory to Sri Lanka in Geneva. Whilst in Nuwara Eliya, Rajapaksa also drove to the Punduloya bazaar where sections of the shops were gutted by fire recently due to an electrical short circuit.
