A visit to Delhi that raised eyebrows and hopes
When a delegation of Sri Lanka’s National People’s Power (NPP) alliance met with top Indian political, diplomatic and security leaders in February, it elicited both surprise and speculation. The meeting was viewed by analysts as a shift in stance by Delhi as well as in the NPP’s attitude towards India. The surprise was not in the invitation to the popular political movement, but its main constituent party, the Left-leaning Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (People’s Liberation Front), which is well-known for its anti-India stance.
To say it was an interesting political development would be a gross understatement, given the historically strained relationship between India and the JVP, a party that had campaigned during the 1988-89 insurgency for the immediate withdrawal of Indian peacekeepers from Sri Lankan soil and had opposed the 13th Amendment to the Sri Lankan Constitution, dubbing it as an Indian intervention to undermine the people’s sovereignty.
The ground has shifted, too. At present, there is a serious trust deficit towards the main political parties that have ruled the island for over 75 years. The last nail in the coffin was the twin crises: the financial collapse and the governance paralysis that rendered both the Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and the United National Party (UNP) extremely unpopular. They are accused of driving the island towards bankruptcy and for prioritising their gain over the country’s, causing the collapse.
This intense public outrage spilled onto the streets in 2022 and eventually forced a popular and elected executive president to resign under severe public pressure. The NPP/JVP gained popularity and trust in this milieu and their political fortunes have steadily grown since, making it a political force worthy of serious recognition despite its bloodied past.
The NPP is led by JVP leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake, who is often considered the most trusted politician in the country right now. This public sentiment found an endorsement in an opinion poll conducted by the Colombo-based Institute for Health Policy, which noted that the JVP was by far the most popular political party in Sri Lanka and Dissanayake the most preferred candidate.
Delhi’s latest response may be a calculated one—an attempt to engage with a popular political group that may record significant political victories when the next elections are held. It would be necessary then to learn about the group’s foreign policy and economic priorities. As for the NPP/JVP, it is an opportunity to present itself as a mature and evolved political movement. In that context, the invitation to the NPP—read JVP for all practical purposes—marks a shift in stance on both sides.
The JVP has been a strident critic of India since its inception. Its famous indoctrination programme in the 1970s included five lectures—with the fifth one on ‘Indian expansionism’—and was reflective of its international policy. The second JVP uprising in 1988-89 was deeply linked to India’s role in Sri Lankan affairs at that time. The JVP mobilised party cadre and the public to oppose India’s interventions, bringing the country to a grinding halt. It strongly opposed the presence of Indian Peace-keeping Forces (IPKF), who arrived after the India-Sri Lanka Accord was inked.
At present, the JVP continues to oppose the 13th Amendment, which resulted in the setting up of provincial councils as a response to the strident call for power sharing by the Tamil ethnic minority.
India’s role at the time and its impact on Sri Lankan politics are not forgotten, and, by many, not forgiven. Many of those decisions are not explained even today to the public and remain politically contentious. The manner in which the provincial councils were introduced and the IPKF was mobilised on Sri Lankan soil continue to make Delhi’s interventions suspicious despite the passage of time. This inherent mistrust is exacerbated by the reality of India’s unpopularity among its South Asian neighbours.
A retired senior diplomat told this writer: “It was way beyond any political or diplomatic intervention. It was a clear case of arm-twisting causing a serious fracture. Naturally, the people viewed the amendment not as an instrument of power devolution, but one of division.”
All these provide the context in which to frame the JVP. But it has shifted from some of its old stances of being anti-India in general to opposing specific developments such as India’s economic thrust and specific deals in the country. It helped that when Sri Lanka plunged into its worst economic crisis post-independence, India offered both humanitarian assistance and financial support to the tune of about $4 billion.
For the JVP, according to insiders, it is not just an opportunity to demonstrate the party coming of age, but also to develop a working relationship with the closest neighbour despite the past. The NPP has been campaigning against privatisation and the “selling of national assets”.
It has stridently opposed India’s Adani Group taking control of Sri Lankan airports, ports and the renewable energy sector. They also mounted protest campaigns against the sale of Sri Lanka’s National Livestock Development Board to India’s Amul. During its recent visit, the NPP delegation visited both Tata and Amul facilities.
As for Delhi, the move to invite and entertain the NPP should not come as a surprise. It is not a departure from its practice of reaching out to key opposition parties. But it is an important signal for the executive president and his cobbled SLPP government that Delhi is paying attention to an important third player with increasing popularity at the ground level. As the NPP continues to oppose strategic investments in the Sri Lankan economy, the visit gains even more significance. For Delhi, it is an opportunity to understand how the NPP/JVP views economic collaboration and foreign policy.
For the NPP/JVP, the visit marks an important moment in its political journey. It contains the recognition of the need to work in a much broader political context, the need for renewal and for positioning itself better as a party that is now ready to move beyond the national confines to deal with the region. And it starts with India, a country it once loved to hate.
(Views are personal)
(dilrukshihandunnetti@gmail.com)
Dilrukshi Handunnetti | Award-winning journalist & lawyer; founder & director of Colombo-based Center for Investigative Reporting