JAFFNA, Sri Lanka — A decision to invite M.A. Sumanthiran, the acting general secretary of the ITAK and a politician widely blamed by his critics for the decline of both Tamil politics and the ITAK’s standing in Jaffna, to the 150th anniversary celebrations of Victoria College in Sulipuram drew protests from a group of former students on Saturday — before the school announced that he would not attend after all.
The former students gathered outside the college to object to the invitation extended to Mr. Sumanthiran, a former member of Parliament and President’s Counsel.
Their first objection was procedural. Mr. Sumanthiran is not an alumnus, they said, and an event marking the institution’s 150th anniversary should have honored a distinguished former student rather than an outside politician. But the complaint quickly widened into a political one. The protesters called him an opportunist and attacked his positions on the Tamil national question and accountability for the final stages of Sri Lanka’s civil war.
The opposition had been building on social media for days. In a strongly worded Facebook post that circulated ahead of the demonstration, one former student accused the college’s administrators and some members of its alumni community of acting according to a political agenda. The post charged that Mr. Sumanthiran had belittled the Tamil armed struggle and the sacrifices made over decades of war and accused him of undermining the Tamil political cause.
Hours after the protest, the college principal, Sulapamathi, issued a statement saying that Mr. Sumanthiran would not take part in the anniversary walk — but attributed his absence to travel plans rather than the objections.
“We had invited former member of Parliament and President’s Counsel M.A. Sumanthiran as a guest for the school’s walk,” the principal said. “However, he has officially informed us that he will be travelling to India and will therefore be unable to participate in the event.”
