“Today is the happiest day in my life and every Tamil family is celebrating the fall of Mahinda Rajapaksa,” Marumalarchi Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam general secretary Vaiko said in Thanjavur on Friday. Maithripala Sirisena may not follow Mr. Rajapaksa’s ‘footsteps of tyranny’, he said.

Addressing the media Mr. Vaiko hastened to add that he was not expecting Mr. Sirisena to ring in radical changes to the political climate in the island nation. “Mr. Sirisena is just another side of the same coin of Sinhala majoritarianism,” he remarked. But Mr. Rajapaksa’s defeat would deter him from committing grave offences against the oppressed minorities, he said

Mr. Vaiko called upon Mr. Sirisena to allow access to the international press into trouble-torn areas in the North and East, stop forthwith the compulsory Sinhala settlements in Tamil-dominated areas in a bid to change the demographic profile. “Moderate forces are with him and I hope wise counsel would prevail on him,” the MDMK leader observed.

However, Mr. Vaiko pointed out that Mr. Sirisena might not take action against Mr. Rajapaksa for his heinous acts of terror against the Tamil minorities and added that the Mr. Rajapaksa must be presented before the international jury for his genocidal actions against the Tamil community and for war crimes against civilians.

Mr. Vaiko claimed that Mr. Rajapaksa has been thrown out by Sri Lanka’s voters, with an overwhelming majority in the Tamil-dominated North and East going against him. “The world has now understood his actions”.

Charging Prime Minister Narendra Modi with exceeding his diplomatic brief on Sri Lankan affairs and Mr. Vaiko claimed that Mr. Modi has brought shame to the nation with his support for Mr. Rajapaksa during the SAARC summit in Nepal. Mr. Vaiko said that he was “happy and pained at once” that Sri Lanka voters had snubbed Mr. Modi.