{"id":17386,"date":"2026-02-19T08:45:20","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T08:45:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/srilanka.factcrescendo.com\/english\/?p=17386"},"modified":"2026-02-19T08:45:22","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T08:45:22","slug":"was-the-buddhist-flag-removed-from-independence-square","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/srilanka.factcrescendo.com\/english\/was-the-buddhist-flag-removed-from-independence-square\/","title":{"rendered":"Was the Buddhist flag removed for the Independence Day celebration, which was hoisted at the Independence Square ?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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The 78th National Independence Day was held at Independence Square in Colombo on February 4th, under the theme “Building Sri Lanka”. Social media posts have alleged that the Buddhist flag that had been hoisted at Independence Square had been removed under the guise of the Independence Day celebration. This discourse stems from a statement by Wimal Weerawansa at a media briefing. This is a fact-check we conducted regarding this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Social Media Posts:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

A social media post was circulated with the statement, “The Buddhist flag hoisted at the Independence Square to commemorate the 2600th anniversary of enlightenment of Lord Buddha was removed on the Independence Day of the country” \u2014 Wimal Weerawansa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Facebook<\/a> | Archived Link<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Many other comments regarding the statement made by Wimal Weerawansa were widely published on social media as follows.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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These social media posts contained the statement made by the former MP that the Buddhist flag hoisted at Independence Square to commemorate the 2600th Buddha Jayanti was removed under the guise of the Independence Day celebration, and that it needed to be hoisted again within three days. Accordingly, we took steps to investigate what exactly happened.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Explainer :<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Public Administration Circular 08\/2011 issued in 2011<\/a> to commemorate the 2600th Sambuddhathwa Jayanthi Week (14\u201320 May 2011) stated that the Buddhist flag should be displayed in all government offices, institutions, and buildings. Since then, the tradition began to hoist the Buddhist flag at the Independence Square, although it was not specified that the flag should be “permanently” hoisted through an official circular.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We examined the footage of the Independence Day celebration to verify whether the Buddhist flag was raised during the last Independence Day celebration held at the Independence Square. However, instead of the Buddhist flag, the national flag was raised.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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