Minister of Highways and Higher Education Lakshman Kiriella indirectly blamed his own party, the United National Party, for the national question of Sri Lanka.

Speaking at a meeting in Battaramulla, he said that India managed to devolve power at the time of independence whereas Sri Lanka failed to do so.

There were suggestions to devolve power at the time of independence but Sri Lanka did not take that path, Kiriella mentioned, adding that it helped to worsen the dispute. If power was devolved then, there would have been no ethnic conflict later, he argued.

Sri Lanka, then known as Ceylon, gained independence in February 1948, when a UNP government, led by D.S. Senanayake was in power.