COLOMBO: Putting an end to the unofficial ban, Sri Lankan school children sung Sinhala and Tamil versions of the national anthem at a celebration marking the 68th anniversary the country's independence from Britain.
Despite facing opposition from certain quarters, the move is seen as an effort by the government to reach out to the Tamil minority after the nearly 26-year war with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam that ended in 2009 before it took the lives of over 100,000 people. “A new journey begins by reinstating the singing of the national anthem in Tamil,” said deputy minister for public enterprise development Eran Wickramaratne.
Deputy foreign minister Harsha de Silva wrote in a Facebook post, “A first in my lifetime. After many years the Independence Day celebrations came to a close with the national anthem sung in Tamil.” President Maithripala Sirisena since becoming President in 2015 by defeating Mahinda Rajapaksa, under whose leadership the Sri Lankan forces defeated the LTTE, has begun several actions to win back the Tamils in the reconciliation process. The unofficial ban on the Tamil version of the anthem was imposed by Rajapaksa.