Ranil wants democracy hopper

The hopper story which has become almost legendary since the defection of President Maithripala Sirisena from the Mahinda Rajapaksa government in 2014 continues to be used as a political idiom in the present day political scenario.

UNP Leader Ranil Wickremesinghe who was among the speakers at the Professionals for Democracy event held in Colombo on Thursday started off his speech by making reference to the hopper talk. “This is the tachchiya (pan) talking. We all got together and cooked a hopper and that hopper was democracy,” he said amidst applause from the crowd. He vowed to fight on to uphold these principles despite the continuing clash with President Sirisena.