Claims of NPP Government will take over private property Get updated: AKD tells Sajith

By Ajith Siriwardana   

Claiming that opposition politicians including Sajith Premadasa were bragging in the political arena that a National People’s Power (NPP) government would take over private property, NPP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake said yesterday they were citing a part of JVP’s policy statement issued in 1980 and urged Sajith Premadasa to get updated.  

Speaking at a seminar held at the Foundation Institute in Colombo, he said the part that the opposition politicians were quoting from JVP’s website was in the policy statement issued some 43 years ago in 1980 and said that NPP’s policies have changed now to suit the modern world.  

“That policy statement was approved in a JVP convention in 1979 and released in 1980 when the socialist camp was so strong. We issued that programme to suit that particular era. After 43 years the strong socialist camp has collapsed. New political camps have emerged based on the United States, Europe, China, and Russia etc. People’s aspirations, technology, market, and communication have changed as never before. We have a world which is completely opposite to what we had in the 1980s. We are a political force which is flexible and able to grasp the changes in world scenario and change accordingly,” he said.  

Dissanayake said the JVP has issued several action plans in 2000, 2015 and 2019 in line with changes in the world.  “We issued an action plan “Expectations” in 2019 focusing on all sectors including agriculture and education etc. Sajith is taking to Twitter, citing something in 1980. We call him to get updated. Sajith is clueless about the political situation in 1980 and today,’ he said.  

NPP leader said Sajith Premadasa is claiming to be updated with new technology, but he is not updated with politics and challenged him for an open debate on economic policies without resorting to traditional politics of mud-slinging.