Indian politicians have become used to the concept of having ink and shoes getting hurled at them during public appearances. Heck, they’ve even normalised punching, kicking and throwing a few chairs at each other, in the name of protests.
However, the last few days in the Sri Lanka has brought out the worst among their MPs. And maybe, just maybe, they might overtake us on the race for being the rowdiest politicians in history.
According to The Guardian, Sri Lanka’s parliament has been disrupted for a second day, and this time things got a violent. And the reason for that was the disputed Prime Minsiter, Mahinda Rajapaksa.
Three weeks ago, the president of Sri Lanka, Maithripala Sirisena, suddenly announced that PM Rani Wickremesinghe has been sacked. And his place has been taken by Rajapaksa. This has caused widespread in their political sphere, with the opposition trying desperately to dismiss his government.
Emotions flared when the anti-Rajapaksa MPs tried to file a no-confidence motion and the pro-Rajapaksa MPs attempted to stop it. Their method was not so subtle because they were throwing chairs!
The chairs hurled by these MPs hit the police officers, who were injured. This came after Thursday’s session got someone hospitalised, along with rumours of a knife-wielding MP in the air.
That wasn’t all. When the Speaker, Karu Jayasuriya, was escorted into the chamber to get the vote for the no-confidence motion, things got worse.
Yes, that’s chilli powder that was thrown on MPs Gamini Jayawickrama Perera and Vijitha Herath. And while all this was happening and people were getting severely injured, according to reports, Rajapaksa was watching from his chair.
However, despite all this commotion, the Speaker was able to register the no-confidence motion and it was formally communicated to President Sirisena. If that’s taken into consideration, Sri Lanka will be without a PM very soon and the President would’ve to name another candidate for the position. And you were thinking our politics is hectic?