Indian invitation signals NPP's coming of age

The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) led National Peoples Power (NPP) delegation’s visit to India last week on the Indian Government’s invitation has given political commentators much to write about.

While the readings of political analysts on the implication of the Indian invitation varies, the JVP's political opponents have used the development as an opportunity to ridicule the NPP and its policies. The comments made by some Samagi Jana Balavegaya (SJB ) spokesmen is not surprisingly influenced by the fact that the NPP is its closest rival in its bid to capture power. The Sri Lanka Podujana Peramuna (SLPP) and the United National Party (UNP)’s criticism is from an entirely different perspective.

In the past, India’s concerns in Sri Lanka have mainly revolved around the conflict in the North and East as well as the Plantation community. Today such concerns have grown to encompass the interests of Indian investors as well as its own security-related issues arising from the increasing Chinese presence.

Increasingly it is becoming clear that the UNP and SLPP (Government) are in political alliance in all but name and will go to the polls as one entity. The SLPP’s vote of 69 lakhs obtained at the last Presidential Elections has vapourised and no longer exists. A large section of the disillusioned voters who supported the SLPP at the last election seem to have gravitated towards the NPP, thus creating a vested interest on the part of the SLPP to ridicule the NPP and attempt to retrieve at least some part of their lost ground.

Additionally SLPPers have some ‘arrears’ to cover as the Sinhala wording goes. They attribute their present political plight to the Aragalaya which succeeded in dislodging President Gotabaya Rajapaksa from power, resulting in the consequent loss of positions and influence. That is why one hears SLPP politicians attributing the crash of the economy to the Aragalaya ignoring the fact that it was the blunders of the Gotabaya Rajapaksa Presidency that gave rise to the spontaneous people’s uprising which manifested itself in the form of the Aragalaya.

Although the Aragalaya was essentially an apolitical uprising of various segments of society against a Government which reduced the people to penury, SLPP politicians believe that the JVP played a large part in such an effort. That explains why leading lights of the SLPP are seeking to remind the people of the harsh actions of the JVP during the 1988 resurrection.

The critics of the JVP choose to ignore that while the actions of the JVP were particularly horrific during that period, the response of the State machinery which was in the hands of the UNP at that time was equally repressive. If one is to judge the JVP only on the basis of what they did 35 years ago, the UNP with whom the SLPP is now in partnership too will have to be judged for its actions at that time.

Additionally, the actions of omission and commission of the SLPP leadership more recently in 2019, 2020 and 2021, which the Supreme Court has determined to be the cause of the economic crisis the country had to face also needs to be taken into account.

What is important at the present moment of time is for the citizenry to be aware of the pros and cons of the respective political parties in order that they are able to make informed decisions. In order for this to be achieved, it is necessary for the political debates among the political parties to be of a mature nature in order to empower voters.

Despite the fact that the JVP has trod the democratic path and consistently spoken up for the democratic rights of the people for the last 35 years, their opponents continue to use their past to question their democratic credentials. The visit of the NPP delegation to India is also being used deliberately or otherwise to taunt the JVP with its past fears of “Indian expansionism” ignoring the fact that much water has flown under the bridge since the JVP's early days.

In fact, Lionel Bopage, a former General Secretary of the JVP in an interview with the Sinhala weekly newspaper Anidda confirms that the JVP began interacting with the Indian Government since the 1980s when he was the central committee member in charge of international affairs.

Objectively speaking, the invitation of the Indian Government to the NPP clearly springs from a belief that they are a serious contender to take over Governmental responsibilities after the next elections. With increasing involvement of Indian economic interests in the country, the Indian Government not surprisingly would like to increase its influence among the important political actors in the country of which the JVP is one.

In the past, India’s concerns in Sri Lanka have mainly revolved around the conflict in the North and East as well as the Plantation community. Today such concerns have grown to encompass the interests of Indian investors as well as its own security-related issues arising from the increasing Chinese presence. It is only natural, therefore, for India to seek to build ties with the NPP which can be considered an emerging political force.

The NPP, for its part, has been working relentlessly in recent years to build its political strength and image which has been largely fertilised by Government blunders of the past few years. The main question in the mind of the voters at the moment is not the integrity of the JVP leadership, but rather the fact that they have never been tested in office for a sufficiently long time.

The weakening of the traditional left parties like the Lanka Sama Samaja Party (LSSP) and the Communist Party (CP) in the past few decades has left a big void in the political discourse of the country. The JVP's controlled transformation into an alliance in the form of the NPP by bringing in large sections of the intelligentsia is an attempt to bridge this gap. Such a move has helped to instill more confidence in the minds of the people.

Most of the opinion polls that have been conducted indicate that the NPP is likely to be a front runner in any future election. Whether the views expressed through such opinion polls will translate into sufficient votes to ensure its victory at a future election remains to be seen. However, it is very clear that at this point of time both the public and the international community including India are taking the NPP very seriously.