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For a Buddhist-majority country, few charges sting a Buddhasasana Minister more than the claim that he insulted the Buddha. That is exactly what a black book cover spreading on Facebook and WhatsApp since October 30, 2026 suggested: that Minister of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs Dr. Hiniduma Sunil Senevi authored a book called “Siddhartha, the Selfish One.”
We briefly looked at this “book” claim, along with posts saying the Minister is a Catholic, in our report published on October 29 . This time we checked the language on the cover, the Minister’s published works, the results of AI detection tools and how the claim spread. Here are the posts that carried it.
The earliest copy of the book cover image we could find was a card posted at 10.01 p.m. on October 30, 2026 by a Facebook page called “Ceylon.” It carried the line “The person who wrote this book is today’s Buddha Sasana Minister,” with the book cover and a photo of the Minister. The card was later reposted in many Facebook groups.
The version forwarded on WhatsApp on October 31 was cropped from that card to show only the book. With the caption gone, it looked like a photo of a real book.
The book claim was spreading even before the image appeared. A long post published on October 8, 2026, and shared more than 1,600 times, said the Minister authored books “calling Siddhartha a selfish one for NGO dollars” and won awards for them. Copies of that post appeared on various accounts and in groups from October 9.
The earliest posts we found were published on November 19 and 20, 2024. They said the new Buddhasasana Minister had authored books calling Siddhartha “a selfish one.”
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Claim examined: That Buddhasasana Minister Hiniduma Sunil Senevi wrote a book called “Siddhartha, the Selfish One,” and that the image shows the cover of that book.
The cover gives the author’s name as “හිනිදුමු සුනිල් සෙනෙවි” (Hinidumu Sunil Senevi). But the Parliament website lists the Minister’s name as “හිනිදුම සුනිල් සෙනෙවි” (Hiniduma Sunil Senevi), as you can see here . The “හිනිදුම” (Hiniduma) part has been written as “හිනිදුමු” (Hinidumu).
The title has the same problem. The posts give it as “සිදුහත් ආත්මාර්ථකාමියෙක්” (Siddhartha, a selfish one), but the word in red on the cover actually reads “ආත්මාර්ථකාමියෙන්” (out of selfishness), which makes no sense as a title. It is unusual for a real publication to get both the author’s name and the title wrong. Sinhala letters are often distorted like this when AI generates an image.
We checked the book cover with two tools that detect AI-generated images. One identified it as AI-generated with a probability of 99.8%, and the other with a probability of 99%.
When we checked the full card, which includes the Minister’s photo, the result was 84.4%. These tool results are only supporting evidence. Our conclusion rests on the errors in the name and title, the Minister’s published works, and the Ministry’s response.
If you suspect an image is AI-generated, a few simple steps help: check whether its letters and names are correct, search bookshops or library catalogues to see whether “the book” exists, run a reverse image search, and find out when the image was first posted. You can read another of our reports on AI images here .
The Minister holds a degree in Sinhala from the University of Sri Jayewardenepura, a postgraduate degree from the University of Kelaniya and a doctorate from the University of Peradeniya and served at Sabaragamuwa University for more than twenty years. He has been introduced as an author, literary critic, and screenwriter, as you can see here .
The National Library of Sri Lanka’s union catalogue lists his book on the history of Colombo (Kolomthota Komaliya, Godage, 2002), as you can see here . An international book database lists four works under his name, on subjects including the Sinhala short story and cinema, and Colombo poetry, here . Details of his book “Cinematic Essays” (Sinamanurupi Rachana), published by Sabaragamuwa University in 2021, are here .
None of these lists contains a work called “Siddhartha, the Selfish One” or anything like it. His writing covers literature, cinema, and history. Our internet searches in Sinhala and English also found no book with that title by any author.
We asked the Media Coordinator of the Ministry of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs, who confirmed that the Minister had not written such a book and that no book had been published under that title.
The Minister’s Facebook page also said here that the Ministry sent a letter on October 30 asking the Director General of Government Information to intervene over false social media posts targeting the Minister. The Minister’s own statement of October 30, telling lies were being spread to question his Buddhist background, is here .
The posts show how the claim grew. An unsourced line in November 2024 that he had called Siddhartha “a selfish one” became, by October 2026, a claim that he “wrote books and won awards” for it, and finally an AI-generated book cover. At no point did anyone produce a publisher, a year of publication or a copy of the book.
We have previously checked the claims that the Minister is a Catholic , that he is not a Buddhist , and a statement falsely attributed to him about the post of Diyawadana Nilame .
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The claim that Buddhasasana Minister Hiniduma Sunil Senevi authored a book called “Siddhartha, the Selfish One” is false. The viral cover misspells both his name and the book’s title, and two AI detection tools rated it more than 99% likely to be AI-generated.
His published works cover literature, cinema, and history, and none of them is such a book. The Ministry of Buddhasasana, Religious and Cultural Affairs also confirmed to us that the Minister has not written any such book.
Written By Fact Crescendo Team | Result: False
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