Badulla District NDF MP Chamara Sampath Dassanayake had an amusing slip of the tongue in Parliament today (18), confusing Mawbima Janatha Party MP Dilith Jayaweera’s alma mater.
During a discussion on the Mahapola scholarship increase—an additional Rs. 3,500 in this year’s budget—the opposition MP argued that the raise was insufficient. He stressed that university students, who had braved water cannons and tear gas to bring the government to power, deserved better support.
In the middle of his speech, he pointed at Dilith Jayaweera, seated nearby, and declared, “This is someone from Kelaniya (University).” To which Jayaweera promptly corrected him, saying, “I am from Colombo (University).”
The ruling party MPs seized the moment, laughing and chanting, “He’s from Colombo… but the cobra is from Kelaniya!”—a cheeky reference to the infamous Kelani Cobra news story aired on a TV channel owned by Jayaweera.
Just before the 2019 Presidential Election, a private TV channel owned by Jayaweera ran a sensational report about a cobra emerging from the Kelani River with a karanduwa (a sacred casket), a story that played a key role in shaping public sentiment. The tale became part of the political folklore surrounding Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s landslide victory—an election that had Jayaweera as one of its most vocal backers.
