Several months after the 11-storey Jaffna Cultural Centre, located next to the iconic Jaffna Library, was formally inaugurated in March, there is no sign of it becoming fully functional. The mayor of the formerly war-torn town blames the Sri Lankan government for the impasse.
Tamil residents of Jaffna, which for long was the heart of a vast territory held by the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), feel they would have gained immensely if the building was open and working because it would provide everyone with much-needed space for culture and arts to flourish.
Instead, there is no indication as to when the mammoth structure will become a happening place with its 11 floors and facilities, which include a conference hall-cum-seminar room, an amphitheatre, a multimedia library with online research facilities, exhibition and gallery space, and an auditorium that can accommodate around 600 persons. All these have been ready since January 2020.
The building has been used only twice – first, in March, when it was virtually opened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and then, on August 15, when the 75th Independence Day was celebrated by the Jaffna-based Indian Consulate.
“Keeping the Cultural Centre closed like this is a total waste,” said mayor V. Manivannan, speaking to The Wire over the phone from Jaffna. “There is no signal as to when it will be handed over to us. No signal at all.”
According to a memorandum of understanding signed by India and Sri Lanka in 2014, New Delhi was expected to hand over the facility to Colombo, which in turn would have given its charge to the Jaffna Municipal Council. But once the building – built with an Indian grant of $11 million – was ready in 2020, the Sri Lankan government began to drag its feet over the functioning of the Cultural Centre.
Mahinda Rajapaksa was the president in 2014, while his younger brother, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, was the president in 2020.
Although Colombo had expressed a desire to run the Cultural Centre, this was opposed by both the municipal council as well as the Tamils across the political spectrum. There was also the issue of whether the municipality had the financial resources to maintain the building with its limited budget. That was when India announced that it would meet the administrative cost of running the building for the initial five years.
Even then, the Jaffna Cultural Centre continues to remain shut.
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“We have informed the [Sri Lankan] government that we are ready to run it,” mayor Manivannan said. “We have also spoken to the Indian government… But they [Colombo] don’t seem to like the idea [that we will run the Cultural Centre]. But we can do it. They are not keen,” he added.
C.V.K. Sivagnanam, the former commissioner of the Northern Provincial Council, told The Wire over the phone that he could not understand why the Cultural Centre was not yet opened. “I heard there were some financial issues… But India has said it will meet the running cost for five years. So, what is the hitch?” he asked, and quickly added that these were his “personal views”.
But he agreed that the Cultural Centre would be “definitely useful” to the overwhelmingly Tamil population in Jaffna. “The question is how to effectively manage all the floors. Some space can be rented out. The building can generate income too.”
A Tamil activist, who did not want to be quoted, pointed out that Prime Minister Modi had in February 2021 told a rally in Chennai that the Cultural Centre would open soon. “That was more than 18 months ago. Then why is it not opening? Now that India has done so much for Sri Lanka in its crisis, why is it not telling it to hand over the Cultural Centre to the Jaffna municipality?”
Jekhan Aruliah, a Tamil resident of Jaffna, who had attended the August 15 event at the Cultural Centre was very impressed “by the excellent air conditioned theatre, high quality audience chairs, super sound system and lighting”. He also hailed the outdoor restaurant area, which he described as the best such facility on this scale in Jaffna, and better than many of the star hotels in the rest of the country.
Aruliah wrote on Facebook saying he was upset that the Cultural Centre opened for only two days. “There has been no such beacon since the Jaffna Library was burned down in 1981… The restored Jaffna Library, reopened in 2003, is an impressive repository of printed material, books and other publications. But culture is about more than books, it is about music and dance and theatre and art and food and no doubt many other things.”
Interestingly, when Aruliah asked an Indian Consulate officer why the Cultural Centre was closed, he was told that the municipality had declined to take on the responsibility of the Centre. However, a municipal officer said that the Centre had not been handed over to the civic body.
When this writer telephoned the Indian Consul General in Jaffna to know about the Cultural Centre, he was directed to the Indian High Commission in Colombo. A spokesman for the mission, who was reached on phone and email on Saturday, October 1, did not revert even after 48 hours.
One thing is clear: Unless the Union government takes some decisive steps, the Jaffna Cultural Centre will remain shuttered, giving the impression that what was meant to be a monumental landmark has ended up as a monumental fiasco.
M.R. Narayan Swamy is a veteran journalist.