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Mr.A. Amirthalingam Leader FP

 A. Amirthalingam in 1977, a Tamil has been chosen Leader of the Opposition.

SAID

``இந்திய அமைதி காப்பு படையின் துப்பாக்கிகள் சட்டபூர்வமானவை``

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Lanka appoints first Tamil Navy chief after four decades

Colombo, Aug 18 (PTI) Rear Admiral Travis Sinniah was today appointed as the chief of Sri Lanka's naval forces, making him the first from the minority Tamil community to head the Navy since the brutal civil war erupted in the country 45 years ago,

Sinniah, who played a decisive role in the destruction of the LTTE warships in deep sea during the height of the civil war,

was appointed as the Navy chief by President Maithripala Sirisena.

"Rear Admiral Travis Sinniah, who has served Sri Lanka Navy with immense loyalty for many decades, took office as the Navy Commander today," President Sirisena tweeted.
His services will be effective from August 22.

Sinniah succeeds Vice Admiral Ravi Wijegunaratne who has retired.

He is the second Tamil to head the Lankan Navy after Rajan Kadirgamar, who was the commander in the late 1960s.

Sinniah is the first from the Tamil community to head the Navy since the outbreak of the civil war in the north and east of the island in 1972.

He successfully commanded a mission in 2007 to destroy the LTTE's weapons smuggling ships in international waters off Indonesia and Australia, that is considered as Sri Lankan Navy's biggest achievement, media reports said.

Sinniah, who joined the Navy in 1982, was the senior most Naval officer to be in active combat operations at sea during the conflict with the LTTE separatists.

It was also announced that Wijegunaratne would be appointed as the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS).
The LTTE waged a war with the government to carve out a separate Tamil homeland in the regions with the conflict ending in 2009. Tamils in the country claim discrimination at the hands of the Sinhala majority.

According to UN figures, up to 40,000 civilians were killed by security forces during Rajapaksa's regime that brought an end to the brutal civil war with with the defeat of Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in 2009.

By  Ayshwarya Yapa
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Eastern Naval Commander Vice Admiral Travis Sinniah has been appointed as the new Commander of Sri Lanka Navy.

He will accordingly be taking over the reigns from his predecessor Vice Admiral Ravindra Wijegunaratne, who formally assumed his duties as Navy Commander on July 11, 2015.

His tenure is scheduled to end on August 22, 2017, and the new Commander will accordingly assume his duties on the same day.

Vice Admiral Travis Sinniah will become the 21st Commander of the Sri Lanka Navy.
He received his letter of appointment from President Maithripala Sirisena at the President’s Official Residence, today (18), the President’s Media Division reported.

Secretary to the President Austin Fernando and Defense Secretary Kapila Waidyaratne had also been present on this momentous occasion.

Travis Sinniah joined the Sri Lanka Navy in 1982, and has been awarded a number of medals, including the Weera Wickrama Vibhushanaya, Rana Wickrama, Ranashura (three times) and Uttama Seva.
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India Elects ‘Untouchable’ President From Lowest ‘Dalit’ Caste
by Alastair Jamieson

Ram Nath Kovind, India's 14th president. Amit Dave / Reuters

"I respect the Indian constitution and no political interest can be above the rule enshrined in the rule book,"

LONDON — India chose an “untouchable” as its next president Thursday after the first contest in which both candidates were from the lowest tier of the country's caste system.

Ram Nath Kovind, nominated by the ruling BJP party, had been clear favorite for the largely ceremonial post, which is decided by 4,800 lawmakers across the country.

Under India’s constitution, the prime minister and his ministers wield executive power but the president sometimes plays a role such as deciding which party should form a government if a general election is inconclusive.

Kovind, 72, is not the first president to be “Dalit,” a term that means “oppressed” in Sanskrit and refers to members of the lowest caste. Kocheril Raman Narayanan took office in 1997 more than half a century after Gandhi pledged to end the country’s ancient system of discrimination.

 Image: Ram Nath Kovind, India's new president, is presented with a garland as part of a nation-wide tour in Ahmedabad

It is, however, the first time since India gained independence from Britain in 1947 that both the final candidates were Dalit — former diplomat Meira Kumar was also low-caste — and it is also the first time that the upper-caste dominated BJP has nominated a Dalit for the job.

One-fifth of all parliamentary candidates must be Dalit under decades-long affirmative-action laws introduced to improve representation and outlaw discrimination. Dalits are also guaranteed a proportion of college places and government jobs.

But while social mobility has improved, particularly in India’s fast-growing cities, rural areas still often witness members of lower castes forced to live in separate areas or prevented from using communal facilities such as water fountains.

Caste campaigner Behan Mayawati called Thursday’s result “a huge victory.”

James Chiriyankandath, a senior research fellow at the University of London’s Institute of Commonwealth Studies, said the real significance was not about caste but rather the expanding influence of the BJP, led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and its brand of Hindu nationalism.
Related: Why Cow Urine Can Be as Valuable as Milk in India

“Caste still plays an important role in electoral mobilization but the religious divide between Hindus and non-Hindus, particularly Muslims, has become one of the main fissures in Indian politics,” he told NBC News.

“It is the most explosive division in India today. Tensions could be built up with the pursuit of policies such as bans on the slaughter of cows.”

He said BJP lawmakers in northern areas of India has “ratcheted up the tension on these religious lines.”

One-sixth of India’s population — about 200 million out of a total 1.35 billion — is Muslim, Chiriyankandath said. Much smaller minorities include Christians, Sikhs and Buddhists.

India will next month elect a vice-president. Another victory for the BJP would give it unprecedented influence in parliament — and potentially a role in deciding the outcome of the 2019 general election if the result is inconclusive.

“These elections are important in terms of consolidation of BJP’s grip on power,” Chiriyankandath said.

Since the rise of the BJP, India has seen a rise in Hindu nationalism, including the emergence of “cow vigilante” attacks on people accused of eating beef or slaughtering cows, which are sacred to Hindus.

Modi last month called on India’s states to quell the attacks, following the follow the stabbing to death in June of a 16-year-old boy accused of possessing beef on a train.

India's Supreme Court on July 11 overturned a government decree on the trade of cattle for slaughter, an order that threatened the country's multi-billion dollar meat and leather industry dominated by Muslims, Reuters reported.

Kovind previously said he was committed to India's status as a secular democratic republic.
"I respect the Indian constitution and no political interest can be above the rule enshrined in the rule book," he told Reuters earlier this month.
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After A. Amirthalingam in 1977, this is the second time a Tamil has been chosen Leader of the Opposition.

 

 “we are loyal to this country and people of this country”. It was his party’s “primary duty” to ensure that there was a “fair and acceptable” settlement of the Tamil issue.

After a gap of over three decades, a Tamil lawmaker has become the Leader of the Opposition in the Sri Lankan parliament.

As soon as the House met on Thursday morning, Speaker Karu Jayasuriya announced that Tamil National Alliance leader R. Sampanthan had been made the Leader of the Opposition and said no other name had been proposed.

A. Amirthalingam of the Tamil United Liberation Front (TULF) was the first Tamil to hold the post between 1977 and 1983.

Mr. Sampanthan, who, in 1956, joined the Ilankai Tamil Arasu Katchi (also known as Federal Party), was first elected to Parliament from Trincomalee in 1977 on the ticket of the TULF when the general elections were held under the 1972 Constitution.

After resigning as MP along with other members of the TULF in 1983, Mr. Sampanthan returned to the Parliament in July 1997. Since 2001, he has been heading the TNA, which now comprises the ITAK, the Tamil Eelam Liberation Organisation (TELO), the Eelam People's Revolutionary Liberation Front (EPRLF) and the People’s Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE). According to records of the Parliament, Mr. Sampanthan has served as MP for more than 22 years.

Later, speaking on a motion to increase the number of Cabinet Ministers to 48 and that of State Ministers and Deputy Ministers to 45, Mr. Sampanthan told the Parliament that his party would work closely with everyone to resolve the Tamil question while “we are loyal to this country and people of this country”. It was his party’s “primary duty” to ensure that there was a “fair and acceptable” settlement of the Tamil issue.

Tabled by Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, the motion was adopted by the House with 143 voting in favour of and 16 against the resolution. Sixty-three members including the that of the TNA were absent at the time of division. While the Speaker did not take part in the voting, S.C. Mayadunne, who was made MP through the national list of the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), resigned his membership earlier in the day and the third person had not yet taken oath as MP.
The approval of the Parliament was required as the 19th Constitutional Amendment fixed the ceiling of the Cabinet Ministers at 30 and other categories of Ministers at 40.