By Uvindu Kurukulasuriya –

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!