Left dumps Sri Lankan ally to please DMK in Tamil Nadu

The CPI(M), in an apparent move to keep its Tamil Nadu allies, including the ruling DMK, in good humour, has decided not to invite the Sinhalese “Leftist” party from Sri Lanka, Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP-People’s Liberation Front), to its nineteenth party Congress to be held in Coimbatore this March.

The JVP, famous for its anti-LTTE stand, has been an invitee in the CPI(M) party Congresses since the 1970s, including the last one held in Delhi in 2005. The JVP, the third largest party in Sri Lanka, does, however, share a warm party-to-party relation with the CPI(M).

Although there are no official confirmation for the reasons for the denial, CPI(M) sources said the party believes that the JVP’s stand on the current situation in Sri Lanka will not help to solve the age-old conflict between Tamils and Sinhalese. The JVP has always proclaimed the unitary status of the island country and opposed any kind of ceasefire with the LTTE. They have been maintaining that the LTTE has to be liquidated through military and ideological warfare. On the other hand, the CPI(M) wants to dissolve the crisis through mutual dialogues between the Sinhalese and the Tamilians in Sri Lanka.

“Since 2005, the JVP has been increasingly exhibiting its Sinhalese chauvinist nature. This will not help to defuse the tension in Sri Lanka. That is the reason to keep the JVP away this time,” a senior politburo member of the CPI(M) said in condition of anonymity. The CPI(M) has been considering Tamil Nadu as one of its “priority states,” where growth is possible in the near future. The party’s close ally in Tamil Nadu, the DMK, has also been considering the JVP as an “anti-Tamil” party.

The JVP leadership also confirmed that they have not been invited this time for the CPI(M) conference. “Yes, the CPI(M) has not invited for us for their party conference. We don’t know the reason for it. But we share a strong relationship with both the CPI(M) and the CPI,” JVP’s international secretary Vijitha Herath told FE over phone from Colombo.

However, the CPI has invited the JVP for its 20th party Congress to be held at Hyderabad in March. “Yes, the JVP is a Sinhalese nationalist party. But they are Leftists,” said Pallab Sengupta, secretary, international department of the CPI. JVP parliamentarians Bimal Ratnayake and Ramalingam Chandrasekhar will participate in the conference, Herath said.

Source: financialexpress.com