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A political poster carrying the face of SLPP Colombo District Organizer Harini Wijetunga has been racing through social media. It quotes her as saying that while National People’s Power (NPP) leaders fatten their party’s coffers with donations from the wealthy, Namal Rajapaksa, like Robin Hood, took from the rich and shared it among the poor. The line is designed to score a political point, so we checked whether she ever actually said it. Here is the post that carried the quote.
Social Media Posts
No Video Shows Her Making the Claimed Remark
We looked for any recording of Wijetunga making such a statement. Apart from the poster itself, no video of her saying anything of the kind could be found. Because the post used a still frame from an interview she gave on the ‘Ape Media’ YouTube channel, we reviewed the channel’s full video.
In it, contrary to the social media claim, she made no mention of Namal Rajapaksa handing out donations from the wealthy to the poor like Robin Hood, nor of NPP leaders enriching their party coffers.
What she actually said was that the current government came to power claiming, Robin Hood style, that it would take from the rich to give to the poor and bring back billions of rupees supposedly hidden abroad. She then accused it of heaping heavy taxes on small businesses and ordinary traders, squeezing the public, while failing to keep those promises.
Harini Wijetunga’s Media Division Confirmed the Posts Are False
Wijetunga’s media division also confirmed that the posts were false, and that she made no such statement during her interview. They pointed to a clear gap between what had been attributed to her and what she actually said.
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Conclusion
Our investigation found that SLPP Colombo District Organizer Harini Wijetunga never accused the NPP of filling its party coffers with money from the wealthy. That quote was manufactured over a still frame lifted from her ‘Ape Media’ interview.
In that same programme she made a different argument: that the government swept to power on Robin Hood style promises of taking from the rich to help the poor and clawing back billions stashed overseas, only to burden small businesses and ordinary traders with heavy taxes while leaving those pledges unmet. Her own media division confirmed the posts are false. We therefore mark this claim False.
Title: No, Harini Wijetunga Did Not Say NPP Leaders Take Donations from Capitalists
Fact Check By: Pavithra Sandamali
Result: False
