A comment by Walter Jayawardhana

Now it is clear that that the UNP leader Ranil Wickrmasinghe cannot make any statement related to the long history of the Sinhala people or Buddhism without becoming the laughing stock of the Sri Lankan people.

Once again he has done it at an election meeting in Kantale at Venrasapuram to the great embarrassment to his party members that the Kapilavasthu relics now venerated by the Buddhists all over the country are relics of Sariputta and Moggallana , the two main disciples of the Buddha.

There have been very many ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ archeologists who have suggested that the Kapilavasthu relics are those of the Buddha.

If there had been any controversy about the relics, mostly nourished by national interests of Nepal and India, was whether Kapilavasthu was in Nepal or in India. There had been no question of Sariputta and Moggallana.

To quote, Wickramasinghe ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ said, ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ…-While the government is exhibiting the Kapilavasthu relics, those of Agrasravaka Sariyuth and Mugalan it has made a man who bombed the greatest Buddha relic temple at Kandy the Chief Minister of the area ( Eastern Province).ƒÆ’‚¢ƒ¢-¡‚¬ƒ”š‚

Sri Lanka is a Buddhist country by its constitution. The majority of the members of the UNP are also Buddhists. Dayasiri Jayasekera, Sajith Premadasa, Karu Jayasuriya some of the potential leaders of the party ƒÆ’-¡ƒ”š‚ who are hated by Ranil Wickramasinghe show there is no dearth of leadership in the party at present if the unpopular Wickramsinghe leaves,

It is the greatest contribution Ranil Wickramasinghe could do to Buddhism which his ancestors betrayed to the white masters.