be conducted and recorded in Tamil; establish District Councils vested with powers over mutually agreed subjects; amend the Land Development Ordinance to provide allotment of land to citizens; and grant land under colonization schemes in the Northern and Eastern provinces to landless people in the district, to Tamil-speaking residents from the two provinces, and to other citizens with preference being given to Tamils from other provinces. Senanayake kept the contents of the D-C Pact a secret which allowed Sinhalese nationalists to allege that he had agreed to the division of the country. Even the leftist Lanka Sama Samaja Party and Communist Party of Ceylon joined the Sinhala nationalist SLFP in propagating this claim. National government ITAK joined the UNP-led seven party national government (hath haula). ITAK was offered three cabinet posts in the national government but, as the party had pledged that none of its MPs would accept ministerial positions until federalism had been achieved, it asked that M. Tiruchelvam be appointed to the Senate and given the Home Affairs portfolio. Senanayake refused to give the Home Affairs portfolio to ITAK and instead gave Tiruchelvam the Local Government portfolio. The Tamil Language (Special Provisions) Regulation 1966, which made Tamil the language of administration in the Northern and Eastern provinces, was passed by Parliament in July 1966. The District Councils Bill, which was presented to Parliament in June 1968, met with opposition from UNP backbenchers and was abandoned. Tiruchelvam resigned from the government in November 1968 when Senanayake over-ruled Tiruchelvam's decision to appoint a committee to look into declaring Fort Fredrick, including the historic Koneswaram temple, a Hindu sacred area. Senanayake's decision had come after the Buddhist high chief priest of Tammankaduwa had objected to such a declaration, stating that it would result in the area getting "into the hands of those who are neither Sinhalese nor Buddhists". Chelvanayakam informed Senanayake that ITAK would withdraw from the national government. Thereafter ITAK sat as an independent group in Parliament, supporting or opposing the government based on the issue in question. United Front Chelvanayakam was re-elected in the 1970 parliamentary election which resulted in the Sinhala nationalist SLFP and its leftist allies winning a large majority in Parliament. Sensing that life was going to get even worse for Tamils under the United Front government, Chelvanayakam declared "Only God can help the Tamils". Some Tamil youth, who felt that they had no other choice,