Sunday Punch 3

or that Lankan Buddhists will cease paying worship at this ancient temple without UNESCO’s tag of approval? Does UNESCO contribute financially to the conservation of their heritage sites or it is merely a badge of honour to flaunt at ancient historic sites? If finances are indeed needed - even if it means a billion bucks from the public coffers to restore the ancient Dambulla caves – do you think the public will grudge one cent of their contribution to conserve Lanka’s heritage dedicated to the Buddha when without the people’s consent the Government do not stint in dishing out over 4 billion bucks to enable MPs to buy luxury vehicles duty free and make a quick killing by selling them overnight at a profit of over Rs 30 million each? Just for a one day stay at Hotel Diyawanna?

But on Friday, it was a case of All’s Well That Ends Well”. A meeting took place in Kandy between the Dambulla chief monk and the Buddhist Commissioner and education ministry officials and it was resolved that the ongoing restoration work – which had been ongoing even before the crisis blew – will continue to go on and will not necessitate any closure of the Temple for even a day?

Makes you wonder, doesn’t it, why government ministers should go with their catapults to fling stones at sleeping wasp nests?

Perhaps it is because they do not realise the damage it will cause to the MaithripalaRanil government to be castigated as Buddhism’s iconoclasts – especially when there is a raging controversy promoted by the joint opposition that the government is hell bent on demoting, in the new proposed constitution, the foremost place given to Buddhism in the present one -and the danger of being labeled as the government that closes down Buddhist shrines of worship and art .

All’s well that ends well indeed, but more like much ado about nothing. Except that the whole episode has only served to leave a big black blotch on the government’s face.