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| Saturday, 9 October 2004 |
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Politics | |
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| Jeyaraj counters TNA views on NIC by Bharatha Malawaraarachchi Chief Government Whip and Minister Jeyaraj Fernandopulle yesterday asked how TNA member Selvarajah Gajendran could criticise the National Identity Card (NIC) when he himself had taken two IDs - one NIC and another Parliament Members' identity card. Referring to a news item published in the Tamilnet, Minister Fernandopulle told Parliament that Gajendran had described the NIC as a symbol of enslavement for the Tamils and that it is a symbol of the humilation to which they were subjected by the Sinhala state. "This is a totally unjustifiable statement. There is nothing wrong in obtaining a NIC. It is not a symbol of enslavement," added the Minister speaking on a Private Member's Motion to introduce an electronic voting system for election in Sri Lanka. Minister Fernandopulle said TNA member Gajendran who criticised the NIC had taken two identity cards. "Suppose a Tamil person in the North receives an air ticket from a relative or friend in the UK, USA or Switzerland, then he needs a NIC to obtain a passport. How can they go abroad without a passport ?." |
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