Sri Lanka President Ranil Wickremesinghe publicly recognising Tamil Buddhism is a positive step, opposition MP Mano Ganesan said.
The MP tweeted Tuesday June 13 morning that recognising Tamil Buddhism as historical fact is “the key to many deadlocks”.
Ganesan was commenting on remarks made by President Ranil Wickermesinghe recently in what appeared to be an exchange of words with Director General of the Department of Archaeology Prof Anura Manatunga.
Minister for Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs Vidura Wickremanayake confirmed to EconomyNext Monday evening that Manatunga had handed in his resignation. The minister did not provide a reason for the official’s resignation, but it followed the president’s rather public calling out of Archaeology Department officials regarding land acquisition by the department in the country’s north and east, allegedly under the pretext of preserving heritage sites.
A video recording of the exchange went viral on social media on Monday, with some including a number of his critics praising Wickremesinghe for setting the record straight on the matter while others criticised the president for publicly reprimanding a government official and professing to give him a history lesson.
ITAK MP Shanakiyan Rasamanickam who was present at the meeting tweeted that the now-resigned Director General of Archaeology is only part of the problem. He accused the minister in charge of being the “brain behind most of these illegal measures carried out by the DG”.
“However, we look forward to the new national plan for archaeology conservation and restoration which the president has promised,” the MP said.
Historian Shamara Wettimuny tweeted that ethnicity was not ‘fixed’ until the 19th century in the way it is understood and categorised today.
“Meanwhile, there was plenty of religious syncretism between Hindu and Buddhist practices (and this remains today, despite such denial),” she said.