President Mahinda Rajapaksa, speaking in Dehiowita on Wednesday, expressed these views on the Indian artistes’ visit to Sri Lanka.

The new building of the Dehiowita Pradeshiya Sabha and shopping complex in the heart of the Dehiowita town was declared open by President Mahinda Rajapaksa. The president addressed a public meeting thereafter.

[quote]Professionals  arrive in the country and leave the country. This professional came to meet me. Salman Khan and the actress Jacqueline Fernandez. They came to meet me. Following the meeting, they left. I asked them what brought them here, they said that they had an ongoing project here, a project where they spend some of their earnings on the poor and needy.  So they establish a medical camp, distribute spectacles, check if there is an illness and perform a surgery. They came down previously and visited Jaffna too, they showed us photographs. Papers publish any lie. I read in one of the English papers that I had spent Rs. 700 million to bring them down to the country. Now actors and actresses carry out many a task on our behalf. We don’t spend a cent on them. They carry out such activities at their own expense. There is a reason behind this. This has a reason. Because we have paved the way for these artistes to independently carry out their activities.[/quote]

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