PeaceLoving Revolutionary
During 1973-1977, under the patronage of the Sri Lanka Freedom Party, Dr. Rupesinghe formed two major weekly newspapers, Janavegaya and Janavegam (both meaning 'people's power'), which embodied a social movement for change in Sri Lanka. The Janavegaya social movement had wide popularity and a presence in all parts of the country. One of his unique achievements at that time was to visit prisons where 20,000 political prisoners were held as a result of the abortive 1971 JVP Insurrection. Eventually, through the efforts of Janavegaya, the then Prime Minister was persuaded to release all prisoners held in connection to the insurrection, except for the key figures of the insurgency.
Through the newspaper Janavegam, a Tamil weekly, he had access to Tamil opinion in the north and became aware of the deeprooted grievances of Tamil youth. Janavegam agitated for their rights and called for power sharing arrangement for the North and East provinces. One positive outcome of this agitation was that the government established the University of Jaffna. The weekly newspaper predicted that unless there was a clear policy to alleviate the suffering of the people in the North and address the grievances of the youth, civil war would be an eventual reality.
Read more about this topic: Kumar Rupesinghe