The irony of the whole issue is that within 5 days of his pronouncement, he committed a political somersault and entered the fold of the carnival of clowns.

As far as Anura Bandaranaike is concerned such political somersaults are not alien to him. He has done so several times in his political career. Therefore it is not a shock to the people of Sri Lanka. But what is shocking is that people are unable to believe that he could commit political somersault within a matter of mere 5 days.

The leadership of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party has been in the hands of the Bandaranaike family until last year. It was his father, S.W.R.D.Bandaranayake who founded the SLFP. For about half a century, the leadership of the SLFP was vested with the Bandaranaike family.

S.W.D.Bandaranaike had been the President of the party from its inception until his death. Thereafter, Anura’s mother, Srimavo Bandaranaike was President. Finally, Anura ‘s sister Chandrika Kumaratunga became its President.

Anura is the son of two former prime Ministers of this country. He is the only brother of Chandrika, a former executive president. He is one of those who have been in Parliament for a long tenure. He has been a member of parliament for 30 long years. He had also held the prestigious posts of Speaker, Opposition Leader and a Minister.

Priyadharshi Anura Solomon Dias Bandaranaike entered Parliament for the first time in 1977 as the second member for Nuweraliya-Muskelliya electorate. Since then there have been several political somersaults by him in his political career.

In 1981 he disagreed with his mothers leadership in SLFP, joined the dissident group led Maitripala Senenayake and claimed that they were the legitimate wing of the SLFP. This issue went before Courts for adjudication.

Two years later he accepted his mother’s leadership and had been the Leader of the Opposition from 1983-1988. In the 90’s, there arose a dispute between Anura and Chandrika over the leadership of the party. As this contest intensified and as his sister’s hands were strengthened, he crossed over to UNP in 1993. As a result, he became a minister for the first time in his political career. He was elected to Parliament in 2002 as a UNP candidate. He became a Speaker.

In 2001 he crossed over to the SLFP and held portfolios of the ministry of foreign affairs and later tourism. In 2005 in a contest for the party candidature for the Presidential poll within the party, he was unsuccessful and Mahinda Rajapakse was chosen by the party.

In the early part of this month following the differences of opinion, President Rajapakse dismissed him from the cabinet. Anura responded by describing Rajapakse’s cabinet as a carnival of clowns. Within 5 days he committed another political somersault surrendering to President Rajapakse.

As far as the people are concerned, they are not shocked by such somersaults.

What perturbs us is the sorry plight of the people that they have to put up with such politics of clowns.