UPFA Digamadulla District MP Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekara lashed out at Sri Lanka Freedom Party Media Spokesperson UPFA MP Dilan Perera for his comments on the issue of singing the National Anthem in Tamil.

Speaking to a local radio channel on Saturday (21), Weerasekara said that Dilan Perera had no right to make a statement on an important matter without the sanction of the party, simply because he is the Media Spokesperson of the SLFP.

Weerasekara was referring to the incident in parliament where he had insisted the National Anthem should be sung only in Sinhalese as the Constitution has provided. Dilan Perera replied that SLFP is not taking such extremist views adding that ‘extremism is best suited for organizations such as the Bodu Bala Sena.’ Perera also said that it was such extremist views that brought the end of the Rajapaksa government.

However Weerasekara said that Perera was exceeding his authority and misleading everyone else by stating that it was the position of the SLFP. The party has not taken any official position on the National Anthem as of yet, he added.

Weerasekara said that he will report this incident to the President when SLFP MPs meet today.

Rear Admiral Sarath Weerasekara held various positions in Sri Lanka Navy before becoming the Director of Civil Defense Forces, which he led during the last years of the war. In 2010 he contested the parliamentary election from Digamadulla District and entered parliament with 54,373 preferential votes. Weerasekara was also the Director and Script Writer of the Sinhalese film ‘Gamani.’