By P
K Balachandran/ENS 19th July 2015 The New Indian
Express
COLOMBO: The radical Sinhalese-Buddhist party, the
Bodu Jana Permuna (BJP), has refused to give an election ticket to
Wijemuni Vijitha Rohana de Silva, who had hit Rajiv Gandhi
with his rifle butt when the then Indian Prime Minister was
reviewing a Guard of Honor at Colombo on July 30, 1987 after
signing the controversial India-Sri Lanka Accord.
The CEO of the BJP, Dilantha Vithanage, told
Express on Sunday, that Wijemuni was not given a ticket to
fight the August 17 Lankan parliamentary elections because he
wanted the leadership of the party election campaign in Gampaha
district when he was not even a member of the BJP or its parent
organization, the Bodu Bala Sena (BBS). “Wijemuni is also known to
be politically inconsistent,” Vithanage added.
However, it was the BBS General Secretary,
Ven.Galagoda Atthe Gnanasara Thera, who had invited Wijemuni to
contest. But the monk had come under pressure from his colleagues
not to entertain Wijemuni.
When Wijemuni attacked Rajiv Gandhi with a reversed
Lee-Enfield rifle at the Lankan President’s Palace, he was a 22
year old rating in the Sri Lankan navy. A staunch Lankan
nationalist he was enraged by the Accord which he felt was imposed
on Lanka by Rajiv Gandhi. He was tried by Court Martial and jailed,
but was pardoned and released by President R.Premadasa after two
and a half years. A battery of the topmost lawyers appeared for him
free of charge, as he was seen as a national hero.
On release, Wijemuni secured a degree from Sri
Jayawardenapura University and started running a shop in Nugegoda
selling DVDs of Hindi films and Hindu devotionals and took to
reading horoscopes for a fee. He has written a book in Sinhalese,
justifying his attack against Rajiv Gandhi. In 2000, he
unsuccessfully contested the parliamentary elections as a candidate
of the Sinhala Urumaya Party.