KILINOCHCHI, Sri Lanka — A district coordinating committee meeting in Kilinochchi ended abruptly on Thursday after a series of heated confrontations involving lawmaker Ramanathan Archchuna, prompting elected officials and senior government administrators to walk out before police intervened.
The meeting, held at the Kilinochchi District Secretariat, began at 9 a.m. under the chairmanship of Ramalingam Chandrasekar, fisheries minister and chairman of the district coordinating committee.
Mr. Archchuna arrived about 15 minutes late and was soon embroiled in a heated exchange with Sivagnanam Shritharan, a fellow member of Parliament. According to people present, Mr. Archchuna used derogatory language while responding to remarks made by Mr. Shritharan.
Mr. Shritharan protested the chairman’s failure to bring the situation under control and walked out of the meeting.
The tensions escalated when Mr. Archchuna alleged irregularities in a coconut cultivation distribution program linked to Agriculture Minister K.D. Lal Kantha in the Thiruvaiyaru area.
An assistant commissioner of the Department of Agrarian Services rejected the allegation, telling the meeting that funds for the program had not yet been released and that no fertilizer subsidy had been provided.
Mr. Archchuna refused to accept the explanation and turned his criticism toward the Kilinochchi District Government Agent, accusing the senior official of corruption and, according to those present, making remarks the official regarded as threatening.
The Government Agent rejected the accusations and challenged Mr. Archchuna to produce evidence to support his allegations.
The confrontation then widened. The district's four divisional secretaries, along with other departmental officials and District Secretariat employees, walked out in protest at Mr. Archchuna's conduct.
Mr. Archchuna also traded heated remarks with Minister Chandrasekar as the meeting descended further into disorder. Even after the officials had left, he continued arguing with the minister and with representatives of civil society organizations. At one point the confrontation appeared close to becoming physical, prompting members of the minister's staff to intervene.
Police eventually stepped in and escorted Mr. Archchuna from the premises. With much of the district's administrative leadership having already walked out, the meeting was brought to a close at about 11 a.m., roughly two hours after it began, and without completing its scheduled proceedings.
In a Facebook post later on Thursday, Mr. Chandrasekar described the suspension of the meeting as regrettable and blamed what he called the irresponsible and uncivilised conduct of unnamed individuals. He did not name Mr. Archchuna.
Forums convened to address livelihoods, infrastructure, agriculture, fisheries, education, and health, the minister wrote, should not be turned into stages for personal political drama. Attending such meetings, he said, carried an obligation to respect democratic convention, administrative procedure, and the dignity of officials. Persistent baseless allegations against officials and attempts to derail development work, he added, would not be accepted.
Mr. Chandrasekar said the day's events had again shown the need for appropriate action against such conduct and drew a contrast between those who create chaos and those who create development. "We will never abandon Kilinochchi," he wrote, pledging that the National People's Power government would give greater attention to the district. The committee would reconvene soon, he said, and take firm decisions aimed at meeting public expectations.
Thursday's breakdown follows longstanding complaints about Mr. Chandrasekar's own handling of similar disruptions. Civil society figures and officials in the Northern Province have accused the minister of failing to act when Mr. Archchuna has disrupted coordinating committee meetings in Jaffna, allowing proceedings to collapse rather than exercising the chair's authority to restore order.
Those complaints intensified after a video circulated widely on social media appearing to show Mr. Chandrasekar pinching Mr. Archchuna's waist during a meeting — a gesture critics interpreted as encouragement rather than restraint. The Jaffna Monitor has not independently verified the circumstances of the footage, and Mr. Chandrasekar has not publicly explained the exchange.
After video of the chaotic meeting went viral, local journalists expressed concern that Mr. Chandrasekar might, as he did in Jaffna, bar reporters and photographers from attending future coordinating committee meetings in Kilinochchi.
Some local reporters also criticised Mr. Chandrasekar’s handling of the meetings, arguing that, as chairman of the coordinating committees in both Jaffna and Kilinochchi, he had failed to take a firm stand to restore order and had instead allowed Mr. Archchuna’s disruptions to dominate the proceedings in Jaffna. They said the resulting chaos prevented several crucial issues facing the Jaffna District from being properly discussed.
While much of the public criticism has focused on Mr. Archchuna’s conduct, some journalists and observers questioned whether the disorder had also served the government’s interests by diverting attention from difficult issues that might otherwise have come under scrutiny.
