Finance and Media Minister Mangala Samaraweera, in a hard-hitting statement in Parliament, said he was wholeheartedly against censorship and criticized those who recently banned creations by several artistes.  

Addressing Parliament yesterday, Samaraweera said no issue could be resolved through censorship. 

"Censorship and bans on artistes only exacerbate problems," he added. 

In his speech, he said he personally looked into the scripts of the radio dramas which have been banned by authorities due to their references to religions. 

"But there was no insult to any religions. None of these radio dramas talk about religions. They only talk about social issues'" the Minister said implying that he could not fathom the rationale behind this ban. 

However, throughout his strong speech, Samaraweera sounded as if he was not a Cabinet member of the government which banned these creations. 

As he is one of the strongest critiques of the Rajapaksa regime, one cannot assume he is cozying up to the Joint Opposition or the Sri Lanka Podujana Party backed by the Rajapaksa group.

Therefore, the only assumption one can come up with is that Samaraweera is probably the Finance and Media Minister of India and he has nothing to do with the Sri Lankan government. 

So, Sri Lankans will make a collective mistake if they hold Samaraweera responsible for actions of the 'Good Governance Government' as he has no connection whatsoever with them!