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The UNP does not play the "communal card" to capture power, its leader Ranil Wickremesinghe said yesterday.

Addressing a meeting held at the Jayewardene Center in Colombo, to oppose the proposed 18th amendment to the Constitution, he said that some people didn’t seem to understand the difference between the words "Nationalistic and Communal. I would advise such persons to refer the Oxford English Dictionary. The UNP is a principled party and has never played the communal card to capture power."

Responding to criticism in certain quarters of his visit to India last week, Wickremesinghe said that he had entrusted the task of organizing the campaign against the proposed 18th amendment, to a team headed by Deputy Leader Karu Jayasuriya before he left.

"For those who don’t know, let me remind them that the UNP in anticipation of the government’s undemocratic acts, held 81 protest meetings countrywide in the months of June and July alone," Wickremesinghe said.

The UNP leader said that some were even criticizing him for meeting President Mahinda Rajapaksa. "Are they saying that I should not have responded to an invitation by the Head of State to discuss constitutional reforms? Contrary to media reports, I met the President over a cup of black coffee and not tea. I drank the coffee without adding milk or sugar."

The discussion at the first meeting had centered around replacing the Executive Presidency with an Executive Prime Ministership. But during the second meeting President Rajapaksa had said that he intended continuing with the Executive Presidency. "So we objected to it as the UNP at its last convention resolved that the Executive Presidency should be abolished," he said.

"I also told the President that we would only support a People Friendly Constitution and not one that strengthens family rule."

The Mahinda Rajapaksa government was no different from that of Prabhakaran, who controlled the North and East with an iron fist. One and half years after the war was over, a "Prabhakaran like dictatorship" was being hoisted on the entire country, he said.

"During Sirmavo Bandaranaikes rule, the people gave power to the parliament, which in turn transferred it to Sirimavo. We are now witnessing the same scenario with the Rajapaksa regime. But the UNP will continue to fight for the democratic rights of the masses in parliament and outside."

Wickremesinghe said that his comments pertaining to the fisherman issue and TNA made in India last week was nothing new, because he had said it before as well.