Public Relations Minister Mervyn Silva said yesterday that he had fallen ill recently and added that even a deadly mosquito had knelt at his feet.

“I fell ill recently and had a fever. Some had gone to town saying that I had become lifeless, but it was not so. There was some change in my blood but the dengue fever just came to my body and just left. The deadly mosquito finally knelt at my feet,” he said addressing an event in Kiribathgoda at which an ambulance was gifted to the Kiribathgoda District Hospital by the Western Provincial Council on a request made by the minister.

The minister went on to say that, following a court ruling recently, many had demanded the resignation of the Ministers of Education and Higher Education. He said that those who did not vote for the government did not have the right to make such demands but only those thousands who had voted for them had the right to do so. He said the courts had given an impartial judgment, which proved the independence of the judiciary, and if this had happened during a UNP regime stones would have been hurled at the residences of the judges. The people should appreciate the democratic manner in which the President governs the country, he said. (Lal S Kumara)