Sri Lanka, April 17 -- It's that time of the political silly season when people are challenging each other to debates. Some complain that certain other parties don't want to turn up for a proposed verbal joust.

At given times, you'd find at least a couple of politically significant persons avoiding debates. They have various reasons to do so. Some say that their challengers are not worth their time and effort, or that an 'A' grader should never debate a lightweight.

Some think it's politically advantageous to goad a reluctant opponent to a TV debate. They may probably know that the debate is not going to happen, because the opposing party is reluctant or is not willing to take the bait at a given time.

But claiming that the other party...