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Journalism of Courage
About 7 km from Colombos Fort area,on the second floor of the Nugegoda supermarket,sits a bearded,bespectacled and balding man,with two computers on his desk and shelves with music CDs and cassettes.
There is nothing really remarkable about the shop which sells music and some stationery products. Except its 46-year-old astrologer-owner.
In 1987,Vijitha Rohana Wijemuni was a Sri Lankan Navy sailor. And on July 30 that year he tried to hit then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi with his rifle butt during a guard of honour at the Sri Lankan Presidents House in Colombo.
He had swung his rifle,but Rajiv managed to duck and miss the full brunt of the blow,even though the rifle struck him. Wijemuni was quickly restrained,court-martialed and jailed for six years. He was let off after about two-and-half years by President R Premadasa through a presidential pardon.
He now sells CDs of Buddhist chants,some Sinhala movies and even old Hindi hits. He says he does not want to talk after this reporter is introduced as an Indian journalist. After some persuasion,he agrees to only talk about his astrology and nothing about the Rajiv incident.
Asked about his predictions for the Mahinda Rajapaksa government,Wijemuni,who contested elections under the ultra-nationalist Sinhala Urumaya party in 2000,says Rajapaksa will not be president after the next elections.
He says he follows Indian politics too.
So who will win the 2014 elections in India? BJP will come to power, he replies. And Rajivs son Rahul? He will become PM,but in the elections after the next one.
He also said Rahul has a long life and that eastern societies have a tradition of family dynasties,which is a normal thing.
Prodded gently about whether he felt what he did in July 1987 was right,on the day the India-Sri Lanka peace accord was signed,Wijemuni said: Rajiv Gandhi tried to create a separate state…that was wrong. He was unjustified,so it was natural justice. If Rahul Gandhi wants to be PM,he should not strive to make a separate state here.
The peace accord though,was not about a separate state but about devolution of powers within a united Sri Lanka.
He says he sells Hindi music because he loves Hindi film music and Indian classical music. He also claims he has been a song-writer and shows a CD,which has nationalist songs penned by him and sung by prominent Sri Lankan singers. On the cover: the famous photograph of Rajiv Gandhi ducking his rifle butt.
Wijemuni said he has no vengeance towards India,but it was wrong for the powerful to threaten the sovereignty of others.
On the Rajiv incident,he said,natural justice intervened,that is why I was in the parade that day. Wijemuni recalls that he was not supposed to be in the front row that day,but someone dropped out and he had to stand in the front row. He has maintained that it was a spur-of-the-moment decision to hit Rajiv.
Wijemunis story was published as a book last year,with the cover again having the picture of Rajiv ducking. Titled Mawbhimata Uththamachara (Tribute to the Motherland) the back-cover says it was Wijemuni who fired the first shot against the India-Lanka accord and that he did not just speak,but did it.
As one leaves his shop,Wijemuni refuses to be photographed and says,I hope you will make me better understood in your country.
