Spreading COVID-19: Ruling alliance faces charges of hypocrisy

Given the Government’s accusation that opposition parties and trade unions are spreading COVID-19 through public protests, the ruling Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna’s (SLPP) decision to hold a public rally in Anuradhapura in the midst of another COVID wave is likely to attract criticism of hypocrisy.

During a media briefing on Friday, SLPP Kegalle District MP Rajika Wickramasinghe continued to make a connection between public protests and the spreading of COVID19. She claimed such public protests were only fuelling the faster spread of the highly infectious “omicron” variant.

Ms Wickramasinghe was clearly flustered when a journalist immediately asked whether the SLPP’s massive rally in Anuradhapura, to which people were brought in from all over, would not spread the virus. “We didn’t bring anyone. People came willingly. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa is a real leader who cares for the country. That’s why people came in such large numbers. We are not the sort of party to bring people by giving various incentives,” she claimed, before abruptly ending the media briefing.