Mahinda cracks jokes at CC meeting

Opposition Leader Mahinda Rajapaksa provoked laughter at last Thursday’s Constitutional Council meeting chaired by Speaker Karu Jayasuriya.

That was with a seeming complaint against the United National Party (UNP). He charged that the UNP was “stealing” all the Opposition’s slogans and complaints leaving little behind.

“See what Ranjan Ramanayake has said about drug addicts among parliamentarians,” he pointed out. Those issues, he declared, “are ones we would be raising.” There was laughter all round.

Playing different roles and making different remarks is an art known to Ramanayake. But in real life, such conduct has landed him in deep trouble. There is a case against him in the Supreme Court for contempt.

Weeks earlier, he castigated Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe and a group of ministers for attending the wedding of Rohitha, son of Opposition Leader Rajapaksa at Medamulana. The fact that even warring tribal chiefs of yore believed in the civilised conduct of meeting rivals on occasions was lost on this smooth talking politician.

On Friday, he appeared before Minister and House Leader Lakshman Kiriella, whom Premier Wickremesinghe has appointed to probe his remarks that there were parliamentarians who were drug addicts. The celluloid hero is yet to disclose the names.