The highlight of October was Prime Minister Dr. Harini Amarasuriya’s official visit to India from 16-18 October. This was the 55-year-old former academic’s first visit to India after she became Prime Minister.
Dr. Amarasuriya is no stranger to India, particularly New Delhi, having studied and graduated from Hindu College with a BA degree in Sociology. She went on to acquire a Master’s degree in Applied Anthropology from Australia and a doctorate in Anthropology from the University of Edinburgh.
The visiting Prime Minister had just returned from a three-day visit to China to attend the Global Leaders’ Meeting on Women. During her China visit, she met with the Chinese President Xi Jinping, Premier Li Qiang, and China’s top political adviser Wang Huning. Their talk was generally about joint ventures and collaborations between the two countries, particularly about Port City Colombo, the Hambantota Port, and the Central Expressway.
Dr. Amarasuriya also lauded the commitment made by Xi to gender equality and women’s empowerment globally during the opening ceremony of the Global Leaders’ Meeting.
Harini’s visit to India
The Sri Lankan Prime Minister’s visit to New Delhi immediately after the visit to China is significant.
Although Dr. Amarasuriya was in New Delhi to participate in the NDTV World Summit, it was evident that the visit was part of the ruling National People’s Power’s (NPP) efforts to strengthen Sri Lanka’s bonds with India.
Her meeting with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi covered a wide spectrum of subjects. In Modi’s own words, “Our discussions covered a broad range of areas, including education, women’s empowerment, innovation, development cooperation, and the welfare of our fishermen. As close neighbours, our cooperation holds immense importance for the prosperity of our two peoples as well as the shared region.”
Dr. Amarasuriya, for her part, said: “It was very good. We discussed how we can continue to maintain the good relations that we have established. Prime Minister Modi gave me quite a few ideas about the education reforms that are going on here. We discussed our respective policies.”
She did not avoid the sensitive issue of fishermen either, noting: “That is an ongoing issue and something that needs to be discussed. We need to protect the livelihoods of our fishermen as well, but we understand that that’s a sensitive issue and we will continue to talk about it.”
Her visit to the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog), a policy coordination think tank in New Delhi, is of special significance. The visit focused on fostering deeper collaboration between the two countries and sharing insights on India’s transformative initiatives in the sectors of infrastructure, education, tourism, skill development, and Artificial Intelligence (AI).
Dr. Amarasuriya showed special interest in understanding how NITI Aayog functioned alongside central ministries and states, linking analysis, evidence-based policymaking, and feedback from citizens into effective governance. She also shared Sri Lanka’s own reform journey and the need for institutions that promoted policy coherence, evidence-based decisions, and consistency beyond political cycles.
The discussions provided an overview of India’s ongoing initiatives such as ‘Pradhan Mantri Gati Shakti’ for multimodal infrastructure planning, the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 for holistic and inclusive learning, collaborative opportunities in tourism and cultural exchange, and frontier technologies including AI and digital governance.
Presentations made on the occasion, particularly those on the Economic and Technology Cooperation Agreement (ETCA); Pradhan Mantri Gati Shakti, showcasing integrated infrastructure planning and the potential application of India’s multimodal logistics model to Kandy City; and education reforms under the NEP 2020, demonstrated areas for future Indo-Sri Lankan projects.
While technology-driven learning systems will benefit Sri Lanka’s tourism, Sri Lanka can benefit from collaboration in digital innovation and governance in order to enable the NPP to deliver systemic improvements.
As NITI Aayog said: “The visit underscored the shared vision of India and Sri Lanka to deepen strategic partnerships, promote sustainable development, and leverage innovation and skills to address regional challenges and opportunities. Both sides reaffirmed their commitment to advancing a knowledge-based, technology-driven, and people-centric partnership under India’s Neighbourhood First and MAHASAGAR frameworks.”
JVP’s turnaround
The extra effort put in by the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP)-led NPP Government of President Anura Kumara Dissanayake (AKD) and Prime Minister Amarasuriya to strengthen ties with India is remarkable for the party’s ideological transformation.
The core tenets of the JVP’s early ideology were outlined in the ‘Five Lectures’ delivered by its Founder Rohana Wijeweera to its cadres. These lectures covered an analysis of the local economy and high unemployment rates among youth, critiques of the ‘old Left’ parties’ failure to achieve a true revolution and anti-imperialist stance (which explicitly included criticism of Indian ‘expansionism’), and the necessity of a sudden, violent armed insurrection to seize power.
The JVP has historically viewed India as an expansionist power and a threat to Sri Lanka’s sovereignty. The party consistently criticised India’s involvement in Sri Lanka’s internal affairs, fearing a potential loss of independence.
The arrival of the Indian Peace-Keeping Force (IPKF) and the signing of the Indo-Sri Lankan Accord in 1987, which aimed to address the Tamil ethnic conflict through devolution of power, was a primary catalyst for the JVP’s second and more violent insurrection between 1987 and 1989.
Wijeweera gave specific lectures against ‘Indian irredentism’ as part of the party’s core indoctrination. The JVP leadership even framed Tamil demands for self-determination as being aligned with US imperialist interests.
The JVP’s transformation from its India-hating revolutionary Marxist-Leninist philosophy to accept a democratic socialist framework came after the failure of its two violent insurrections (in 1971 and 1987-’89). Of course, the ideological transformation was aided by the collapse of the Soviet Union. Its evolution from insurrection to democratic engagement involved abandoning armed struggle.
However, the reframed ideology has retained its Leftist orientation by reinterpreting Marxist principles to suit pluralist democracy. It features emphasis on anti-imperialism, social justice, and economic equity while abandoning authoritarian socialism.
The JVP’s present avatar has embraced electoral politics, and rebranded its ideology around anti-corruption, civic empowerment, and inclusive governance. The NPP coalition’s success in the last Presidential and Parliamentary Elections show that people have welcomed its focus on grassroots democracy, transparency, and participatory governance aligned to democratic norms. So far, JVP MPs’ parliamentary behaviour has been more constructive.
FSP vs. India
The Frontline Socialist Party (FSP), which shares ideological roots with the JVP while maintaining a separate identity, is not a formal member of the NPP coalition. It considers itself as the inheritors of the JVP’s revolution, retaining its anti-Indian stance.
The party often criticises the NPP Government for its pragmatic alliance, sacrificing ideology. It has questioned the NPP’s recent deals with political actors to help the ruling alliance gain control of local councils, branding them as a betrayal of anti-establishment principles.
Wasantha Mudalige, an activist of the FSP, has recently criticised the NPP Government for allowing India to expand investments in the strategic Trincomalee District “at the expense of people” (whatever that means).
Recently, when the President visited the Sri Lanka Air Force (SLAF) Academy in Trincomalee, the FSP activist said that the Government had “brazenly facilitated high-profile Indian projects,” such as the Trincomalee Oil Tank Farm project, launched decades ago. He alleged that the NPP was pursuing an agenda inimical to Sri Lanka, contrary to what the JVP/NPP had been saying over the years.
Another FSP spokesman said that the Government seemed to have adopted a very similar strategy in the Mannar District, where the people have launched protests against controversial wind power projects. None of the NPP lawmakers from the Northern and Eastern Provinces spoke on behalf of the people, for obvious reasons, as the Government was bent on appeasing India, regardless of the consequences.
The FSP has recently called a press conference in Colombo where Duminda Nagamuwa, a leading figure within the party, questioned India’s motive in implementing housing projects in many parts of the country. He pointed out that there were so many people without proper housing in India, while New Delhi was engaged in mega housing projects here.
Nagamuwa was referring to India’s announcement that it would support the construction of 14,000 houses for the Indian-origin Tamil community in Sri Lanka under Phase IV of the Indian Housing Project. The project was officially launched at a ceremony on 12 October, attended by President AKD and the Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka.
Challenges for AKD
Unlike the Rajapaksas, AKD seems to have abandoned a personality-based leadership style and adopted an inclusive leadership for the JVP’s NPP alliance with affiliate wings such as NPP Youth and the Progressive Women’s Collective. His core strength appears to be pragmatic governance, mass appeal, and a reformist agenda.
In relation to pragmatic governance and a reformist agenda, India’s learnings and assistance have become indispensable to Sri Lanka; the cultural and historical connections give India a leg-up in tackling Chinese competition in Sri Lanka. Apparently, its form has appealed to the people as the NPP accounts for 159 out of 225 Members of Parliament and over 200 out of 341 local bodies.
However, while managing the coalition, AKD must manage the JVP’s lingering residual radicalism visible in its rhetoric, centralised party control, and difficulties in managing ideological purity with coalition politics. Otherwise, the NPP runs the risk of being marginalised in the cutthroat politics of Sri Lanka.
As far as relations with India are concerned, AKD’s problem is likely to be in handling the sizeable population of India-baiters present in almost all parties. The Indo-Sri Lankan Accord and 13th Amendment as well as Indian poachers fishing in Sri Lankan waters are their rallying points to trigger anti-Indian propaganda.
(The writer is a retired MI specialist on South Asia and terrorism, and served as the Head of Intelligence of the Indian Peace Keeping Force [IPKF] in Sri Lanka from 1987-’90. He is associated with the Chennai Centre for China Studies. Email: haridirect@gmail.com; website: https://col.hariharan.info)
(The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect the official position of this publication)