Minister Mangala Samaraweera today said he welcomed any party to institute legal action against the Diaspora Festival being planned by his Ministry to be held by the end of the year.
 
“Be it Warnasinghe or any other party, anyone can go courts against the festival. If that happens, I will not even seek the assistance of a lawyer, I will represent myself in courts to defend the event,” he said addressing the media at the Information Department last morning.
 
Minister Samaraweera criticised those shed a negative light on the festival simply due to the use of the term ‘Diaspora’.
 
“As pointed out many times earlier as well, the term Diaspora does not refer to LTTE activists. It refers to Sri Lankans of all communities and ethnicities who have migrated.
 
“Our invitation is for those among them, who stand for a united Sri Lanka in which the sovereignty and territorial integrity is preserved. We wish to welcome them and to seek their assistance and expertise in rebuilding this country,” he said.
 
The Minister went on to state that it was only a few narrow-minded individuals, who are trying to paint the event in a negative light to mislead the public.
 
“I have mentioned earlier that Tamil extremism and Sinhala extremism are two factors that continue to fuel each other. . . Rudrakumaran and Warnasinghe are two sides of the same coin.
 
“This new government was elected to cast aside such narrow minded attitudes to gain short term political goals and achieve long lasting reconciliation and peace and we believe this event will help pave the way to that goal,” he added.(Lakna Paranamanna)