Anura responds to handshake with Namal: Says correct gesture than refusing handshake

Colombo, August 19 (Daily Mirror)- Commenting on the interaction with SLPP Presidential candidate Namal Rajapaksa at the Election Secretariat, NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said today it was a normal political incident and that it was correct than declining a handshake.

Responding to a question on the conversation with Rajapaksa, he told the media that they did not discuss anything special.

"I just asked 'How are you malli (brother)?' If I want, I can tell to his face that his father and family had looted public funds or I can shake hands as a good gesture. Shaking hands and our policies have no connection. It is only a political incident," he said.

Dissanayake said it is normal human quality to stand up and accept when someone offers a handshake.

"You see how people criticise the incident of refusing the President's handshake. How conceited he was. What we did is correct. Refusal of a handshake is wrong,' he said.