National flag should not have colours for ethnic groups - BBS

The Bodu Bala Sena has called for a change in Sri Lanka's flag, saying it was "extremist" as it differentiated between the different communities that lived on the island.

Speaking to the Lanka Herald, BBS General Secretary Gnanasara said,

“If a national flag tries to assign colours for communities living in a country, then multi-ethnic countries like India would never have been able to have a flag.”

Sri Lanka's national flag, is dominated by a lion, the Sinhala national symbol, holding a sword facing two small strips, which were added to represent the Tamil and Muslim communities. In 1972, the government added four leaves of the Bo tree, a holy Buddhist tree, to the flag.

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