• Says hopeful of collectively fighting Govt. ‘repression’ and opposing IMF

The Inter-University Students’ Federation (IUSF) is hopeful that the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led National People’s Power (NPP) of the Parliamentary Opposition will join hands with the IUSF to fight against alleged Government repression.

Speaking to The Daily Morning yesterday (26), IUSF Convener Madushan Chandrajith said that the recent meeting held last week with the NPP leaders had taken place to discuss the current issues of the State university system and the Government’s alleged repression that is increasing day by day. He noted that otherwise, there is no other political motivation behind the said meeting. Chandrajith also said that the IUSF wanted to urge the NPP on the importance of a collective movement to achieve the goals that are common to the public without waiting until an election is called. He alleged that the entire university system has collapsed now as a result of the Government curtailing its expenditures on health and education as per the directives of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). “We urged the NPP to stand against the IMF and its proposals that are absolutely unfavourable to the country. We believe that we cannot wait for an election. The situation becomes worse day by day. The Government is enacting numerous repressive laws in parallel to the repression exerted by the Police. We cannot let this continue,” he said.

He further noted that they are hopeful of a good response from the NPP’s end regarding the matters raised by them. “We raised the importance of a collective movement to fight against the Government’s conduct. There is no other political agenda behind the particular meeting. We are hopeful of a good response from the NPP,” he added.

Senior member of the NPP Sunil Handunnetti was unavailable for comment.