– Agriculture, Livestock, Land and Irrigation Minister K. D. Lalkantha has said that while individuals who commit offences should be punished under the law, the Buddhist robe itself should not be treated as being at fault for an individual’s wrongdoing.“I personally do not like punishing the robe. The robe was punished even during the colonial era. Our Buddhist monks were shot dead while wearing the robe. I do not like that. Just because an individual commits a wrongdoing, the robe itself is not at fault. According to the law, it is fair to punish the person, not the robe,” he said.Commenting on Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) General Secretary Ven. Galagoda Aththe Gnanasara Thera, Minister Lalkantha said the monk was a friend of his, but said that the law applied to everyone.

“There is a law in the country, and that law was not made by us. It was not because of us that Ven. Gnanasara Thera ended up in that situation. He had been imprisoned before, and this was not the first time,” he said.

The Minister claimed that around 63 Buddhist monks were currently in prison, questioning why their cases had not received similar attention.He described Ven. Gnanasara Thera as an honest person who had been used by various groups, adding that the monk himself was aware of this.“Even today, the Thera is being used for politics. There is no discussion about the 63 Buddhist monks currently in prison because they cannot be used for political purposes,” he said.Lalkantha further alleged that certain fringe groups were exploiting the monk to advance their political agendas.“What is happening is that certain fringe groups, unable to gain any real traction on their own, are exploiting a Buddhist monk by using him as a vehicle to push their agendas of ethnic and religious chauvinism,” he said.