‘Para Demela’ (Pariah Tamil)- said President’s brother Basil

It was reported Ceylon Workers Congress (CWC) decision to quit the government was due to an argument between President Mahinda Rajapakse’s brother Basil Rajapakse and CWC parliamentarian Muththu Sivalingam. Basil Rajapakse had made abusive statement against the CWC parliamentarian Muththu Sivalingam.

Sources close to CWC now confirm that Basil Rajapakse was engaged in a heated argument and went berserk by threatening Muthu Sivalingam and had called him a ‘Para Demela’ (Pariah Tamil). (Thesaurus meaning for pariah: ‘In India and Myanmar, a member of a caste that is lower than the four main Hindu castes’.) The literal meaning in Tamil for pariah is ‘someone under class who is involved in the disposal of excrements from the toilets’.

It is unbecoming of someone holding higher position in the government to use such insulting racist statement. Depending on the circumstances and the tone pitched the word ‘Para Demela’ can really hurt the feelings of the victim. The resultant effect of this slang tirade was CWC leaving the government and agreeing later to give only back bench support to the government.

This factual account is being down played by both the government and the CWC.

In a separate development President Mahinda Rajapakse at a meeting recently at Temple Trees had shouted at Vidydaran, the Editor of a pro-LTTE Tamil daily Uthayan and asked him to seek security from the LTTE.

The outspoken media man Vidyadaran for some reason is maintaining silence about this incident.