Uvindu Kurukulasuriya
Dunesh Gankanda, a United National Party Member of Parliament from the Ratnapura District walked in to The Museum Club at the Galle Face Hotel around 1.30 am on Sunday with a friend, Capt. Senaka De Silva, a close aide of General Fonseka. Present at the night club was a Tamil businessman, N.V. Thivakaran, entertaining a group of foreign clients. Senaka knew Thivakaran and walked up to his table to say ‘hello’ and then introduced Dunesh. Diwakaran invited both to join his table. Dunesh initially made small talk and then broached the topic of Raju Radha, ex-husband of Dunesh’s wife Kushani Nannayakara. She is the daughter of Capt. Nanayakkara and Mrs. Norma Nannayakara of Green Lanka Shipping Ltd. and has two children from her marriage to Raju.
Raju Radha, the son of the famous Indian actor M R Radha, is the owner of HRC Shipping and other businesses. His sister Radhika is also a popular Indian actress. Their mother is Sri Lankan.
When Diwakaran said he knew Raju well and Raju was a relative – out of the blue Dunesh lunged forward, bit Thivakaran’s nose and then disappeared into the crowd in the night club. Thivakaran was shocked and did not react at all. Bleeding profusely and in pain Thivakaran was rushed to the General Hospital, Colombo where doctors performed surgery on his nose. Later he got himself discharged from the General Hospital and admitted himself to the Nawaloka hospital where he underwent surgery that same evening for a second time. Later he made a police complaint.
Senaka knew Diwakaran and walked up to his table to say ‘hello’ and then introduced Dunesh
This columnist talked to Shanil Nethicumara who was at the scene but he would not speak saying ‘both Dunesh and Thivakaran are his friends.’
Dunesh Gankanda who went into hiding to avoid arrest subsequently surrendered to the Colpetty Police on Monday through his lawyer. Later the Colombo Fort Magistrate has released Gankanda, who was produced before the court over the assault, on bail.
History Of Violence
Dunesh Gankanda has a history of violence when under the influence of alcohol. People who know him allege he assaulted his aunt, one member of Ministerial Security Division, one of his bodyguards, one female maid servant, etc. He threatened to assault his seventeen- and- a–half- year-old step son two years ago and last month verbally assaulted his seventeen-and- a- half -year old step daughter, resulting in a possible legal issue between the Radha’s and the UNP MP.
A complaint was filed with the Police Women and Children’s Bureau for threatening physical abuse, verbal abuse and racial abuse on the under-age step son and step daughter in January 2010 at JAIC Hilton. Again verbal complaint was made to Sri Lankan High Commissioner in Singapore, Ferial Ashroff, regarding verbal abuse and racial abuse on the under-age step daughter on 24th April 2012 in Singapore.
A Racist
This UNP law maker is not only a violent man, but a racist too. Talking with this columnist Dunesh’s step son Sooraj Radha said “Uncle Dunesh is not fit for politics, I’m half Sinhala and half Tamil, he calls me ‘Demala pakaya’ (Tamil Cunt ) He is a racist. He has never said sorry. He even abused my sister with ‘Sudda Sinhala filth’. Once I asked him to apologies, and he said I’m not going to say sorry to a ‘demala pakaya’”.
Now what? Talking to media, the Acting Leader John Amaratunga, the former Minister of Interior in charge of the Police, currently in charge of the UNP says ‘biting nose’ affair is a ‘private matter.’ How is it a private matter? Dunesh is a law maker and his behaviour is not a private matter. If this is the way Sri Lanka’s main opposition party thinks, we can say now that the UNP has gone to the dogs. Not because it’s MPs are biting people, but because of the attitude of its leaders to criminality. No responsible political party, especially one that as the main opposition is supposedly government in waiting, can take up a passion like that with regard to criminal behaviour of one of its MPs.
A Private Matter And MP Eric Joyce
UNP should learn something from the civilised world. Two month’s ago Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont said: “This is a man who has abused his position of power and authority. I’m disgusted, regardless of any other issues. I think this makes Eric Joyce unfit to stand for the Labour Party.” She made these remarks after Falkirk MP Eric Joyce resigned from the Labour Party. He was fined for assaulting his colleagues in Strangers’ Bar at Westminster around 10.30 pm on February 22. Chief magistrate Howard Riddle said Joyce would have faced jail, with a maximum sentence of 26 weeks, had the matter gone to trial. Giving credit for Joyce’s early guilty plea to four charges of common assault, he handed him a 12-month community punishment instead. Joyce was also barred from all pubs for three months, banned from travelling abroad unless on Parliamentary business, and ordered to pay a £3,000 fine and £1,400 in compensation to his victims. The MP was also given a curfew.
In an interview with Sam Holden at the University of Bedfordshire, Joyce said: ‘Have I undermined my authority by fighting in a bar punching people? I might have done.’ In an another interview Joyce also admits feeling guilty at times that he hasn’t been a better role model for his children, who like to remind him: “Daddy’s not famous, he’s infamous.”
He regrets he’ll never fit in with the other MPs, and has great sadness that that he’s no longer a member of the Labour Party. He was forced to resign and apologise to parliament.
Joyce quit Labour before he was sacked. The Labour party said: “This shows why he is not fit to be an MP. “We launched moves to throw him out of the party within minutes of his conviction and he would have been expelled if he had not resigned.”
Of course, there are lots of ‘low levels ’sickening ‘Chandiyas’ in ruling party too. No action has ever been taken against them. Opposition law makers are screaming about that, but when it comes to them they say “it’s a private matter”. No need of any proof; that is the political culture the UNP is going to develop in Sri Lanka. If I’m wrong the UNP should expel Dunesh from the party and prove I’m wrong!
Lakshan / June 9, 2012
Ainsley Abeywickreme, You represent a perfect model of majority ignorance-infested political knowledge of Sinhalese! That is why after so many years since independence and while all the other countries who gained independence after us have overtaken us we have de facto reversed and retarded in the opposite direction!
Politically you are just a worthless voter because you never walk into a polling booth! Into the bargain you proclaim in these political forums your adamant, negative, regressive and futile myth that you are not going to vote! Suppose if all others were equally “intelligent” like you and they all listened and accepted your idea and they did not vote for anyone can you imagine the terrible state this country would plunge into? You participate in these forums to promote a certain political view. And what are you going to promote by advocating mass political lethargy and suicide? If majority of politicians are idiots then what the votes have to do is to expose such facts and demand their withdrawal from politics and urge to appoint good people to represent them. But you have used abstinence from voting in the sense you do not like RW and therefore others should feel and do the same. We know the morbid idea behind this thought is that make Ranil get defeated over and over again for an extended period of time and then hope that Sajith will one day come to power because people will think there is no one to rule the country except this half-witted former ancient treasure hunter Sajith whose only plan to defeat the government is to distribute Rs. 50,000/- per temple whose monks would wash the loin cloth of Sajith if he gives them something to regurgitate and chew over and over again! After all where does he get this money from? Some say it is the governments money secretly pumped to him while others say it is the money plundered from the government and ancient treasure plundering he committed during the time of his father was the president!
You have displayed marvelous political wisdom by placing more confidence in KJ than in RW! Let me tell you one thing. I don’t care about RW nor have a particular liking for him. My concern is who the best one is for the post from among those we have at the moment.
Take the political pedigree of KJ: he frog leaped to MR’s lap not alone but with 17 odd UNPers and then after being scolded with utter filthy language by the President crept into the UNP empty handed. You place your oozing confidence in him but he has not been able to rescue his son-in-law from the MR’s clutch. He teamed up with a bunch of dissidents and traitors in the party and has been doing everything possible to weaken, destabilize, defame and destroy the party. I think your oozing confidence in him may have grown in leaps and bounces when he staged his failed leadership comedy and stoning down the Sirikotha! You have so fabulous political foresight, taste, idiosyncrasy and vision that a criminal traitor like KJ who is privy to stoning down the motherland of UNPers becomes your favorite choice and chosen one to lead the country! Do you know what people call him? He is called “patholaya”, also called “marble statue” meaning lifeless useless person! Don’t you know RW had planned to field him as the next presidential candidate and knowing this MR trapped this fool in a failing and self-destructive leadership struggle with RW? Obviously, don’t you understand, I doubt, that had he remained faithful and honest to RW, would he have ended his political life as he had done today! His political career is over now! Don’t you get it? Nobody would vote him again? Still you don’t get it? Last General Election, how many votes did he get and how many votes Paba-that promiscuous lady actor-got? Don’t you know UNP lost Gampaha solely due to KJ’s poor rapport and performance? Have you heard what his voters in Gampaha say about him? Can you name a single thing KJ has done to promote the opposition movement against the government? Don’t you see your imaginary future leader of this country is associated with all sorts of negative attributes, conspiracies, contradictions and publicity about him? Do you say RW does not stand up for good governance and 17th A? Don’t you know how MR defeated RW in the presidential election by preventing Tamil votes though LTTE? Don’t you see had the election been conducted in a fair manner the real president would have been RW? This gets endlessly lengthy I am afraid and I hope you will have a reassessment of your way of thinking politically.
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