ITAK Has Betrayed the Tamil People; Says Gajendrakumar

23-Nov-2025

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Gajendrakumar Ponnambalam, Leader of the Tamil National People’s Front and Member of Parliament, stated that the ITAK has committed a serious betrayal of the Tamil people by reiterating to President Anura Kumara Dissanayake the promise of advancing the draft ‘Unitary State’ constitution—a proposal rejected by the Tamil community.

He made these remarks on November 21 during a press conference held at his residence in Colombo, commenting on the discussions that took place between the President and the ITAK earlier that week. 

He further stated:

To avoid unrest in the Northern and Eastern Provinces, our intention was to form at least a unified position among all Tamil nationalist parties on securing a political solution to the Tamil national question. In that spirit, we had initiated discussions with S. Shritharan, the ITAK’s Parliamentary Group Leader, and Selvam Adaikkalanathan, the Parliamentary Group Leader of the Democratic Tamil National Alliance. By January this year, all preparations had been made for trilateral discussions. However, these efforts were unilaterally abandoned by the ITAK.

Specifically, these talks were halted following the appointment of Sumanthiran as General Secretary of the ITAK. The justification given was that, since the Government had not officially announced any initiative on the political solution, there was no necessity for the parties to reach consensus at this stage.

Similarly, during the local government elections, we and the Democratic Tamil National Alliance had reached a policy-level agreement and signed a memorandum of understanding. Even then, during discussions with the ITAK’s Deputy Leader and General Secretary, we emphasized the importance of arriving at a shared policy position.

Against this backdrop, the present Government continues to follow the same approach as previous administrations on all Tamil issues, including land grabs, political prisoners, enforced disappearances, and the establishment of Buddhist monuments in Tamil-majority areas.

In this context, the ITAK, which met the President last Wednesday, made no effort to build consensus among Tamil nationalist parties on the Tamil national question. Moreover, the matters officially reported by the ITAK’s General Secretary as having been emphasized to the President are extremely alarming.

Compared to the past, the ITAK’s vote bank has significantly declined. The principal reason for this is the ‘Unitary State’ draft constitution produced between 2015 and 2019 by Sampanthan and Sumanthiran in collaboration with the Good Governance Government under the banner of the Tamil National Alliance. Despite this history, the ITAK has now invoked the President’s assurance to advance that same Unitary State draft constitution—an act that constitutes a profound betrayal of the Tamil people, he said.