Why India Is Wooing Sri Lanka's JVP - Rediff

India is trying to turn Sri Lankas JVP from an anti-India Marxist force into a pragmatic partner in Colombo.IMAGE: External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar greets Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna General Secretary Tilvin Silva in New DelhI, October 1, 2026. Photograph: @DrSJaishankar X/ANI PhotoKey PointsSri Lankas JVP, historically critical of Indias stance on devolution, is now being actively courted by Indias ruling BJP, marking a significant shift in diplomatic engagement.JVP leader Tilvin Silva, considered a powerful figure in Sri Lanka, recently concluded a high-profile five-day trip to India at the invitation of the BJP, meeting senior leaders and officials.New Delhi hopes to convince JVP leaders that devolution should be viewed as a counter to Tamil separatism and crucial for the economic progress of Sri Lankas northern and eastern provinces. Indian ideas on devolution are an indirect support to the LTTE (Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam) ideology.This was Vijitha Herath, now Sri Lankas foreign minister, speaking on the margins of his 2008 trip to a meeting of the All India Forward Bloc at Jabalpur in Madhya Pradesh.Herath, then secretary of the international department of Sri Lankas now ruling Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), was furious over the Indian and Western attitude towards his country amid the war -- which ended a year later.Not only India but no country has a right to interfere in our problem, he asserted to this correspondent.We dont have a problem if they have a dialogue with Sri Lanka as a neighbouring country. India must support us to defeat the LTTE militarily and ideologically. That is Indias duty.Herath came to India and left unsung. He did not meet anyone in the then ruling Congress party (although the Forward Bloc then backed the Congress-led coalition at the Centre) or in the BJP, which was in the Opposition.Heraths JVP was an overtly enthusiastic supporter of the militarys war against the Tamil Tigers -- and he and his colleagues saw India through the narrow prism of the ethnic conflict.IMAGE: Dr Jaishankar with Tilvin Silva and the JVPP delegation in New Delhi. Photograph: @DrSJaishankar X/ANI PhotoShifting Diplomatic LandscapeFast forward 18 years later, one of the tallest leaders in the JVP, Tilvin Silva, has just ended a five-day trip heading a party delegation to India at the invitation of the Bharatiya Janata Party.For all practical purposes and intent, Silva, considered the most powerful man in Sri Lanka after President Anura Dissanayake even though he holds no government post, was treated like a VVIP by the Indian establishment.Politically, there is nothing even remotely in common between the JVP, a Marxist party with strong roots in Sinhalese nationalism, and the BJP, a Hindu nationalist rightwing group which detests Marxism and socialism.But it is understandable why the Indian government, through the BJP, desires to court the JVP and its leadership.Silvas first official trip to New Delhi happened in February when he visited Gujarat and Kerala as part of a Distinguished Visitors Programme of the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR).These were the same states to which Dissanayake and Herath went to in February 2024 -- months before the former was elected the president.This time, Tilvins interactions were with the BJP, which has been in power since 2014 and which prides itself as the biggest political party in the democratic world.IMAGE: Dr Jaishankar holds discussions with Tilvin Silva and the JVP delegation in New Delhi. Photograph: @DrSJaishankar X/ANI PhotoHigh-Level EngagementsThe most senior BJP leader who interacted with Silva was B L Santosh, the national general secretary (organisation) who serves as a key link between his party and its ideological parent, the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh.We gave a comprehensive briefing about the organisational structure and working of our party, and we heard Silva on the JVPs expansion, said Dr Vijay Chauthaiwale, who heads the BJPs international wing.Dr Chauthaiwale said the JVP was invited as part of the Know BJP programme under which leaders of political parties from around the world are invited for interactions with Indias ruling party.Dr Chauthaiwale, a former scientist, said ideology played no role when political parties were extended invites. We have hosted communist parties from Nepal and China in the past.Silva met Delhis woman chief minister, Rekha Gupta, on September 30 where he was briefed about the city BJP governments development and welfare programmes since taking power a year ago.Before returning to Colombo, Silva met with External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Thursday, October 1.IMAGE: BJP national President Nitin Nabin meets Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna General Secretary Tilvin Silva at the BJP headquarters in New Delhi, October 1, 2026. Photograph: @BJP4India X/ANI PhotoAddressing Development ConcernsOne of the JVP leaders accompanying Silva was Kapilan Sundaramoorthy.A Jaffna University academic-turned-political activist, he is expected to be the chief ministerial candidate for the Northern Province for Sri Lankas ruling National Peoples Power (NPP), in which the JVP is the dominant partner. Kapilan, now a member of the Jaffna municipal council, was the NPP mayoral candidate in the last election.Silva and his JVP colleagues also visited Parliament (which is not in session), the Prime ministers museum and the National War Memorial in Delhi.Informed sources in Colombo say that despite close ties between Sri Lankan and Indian leaders, there is disappointment in New Delhi over the slow progress vis-à-vis India-aided projects in the island nation.This, one source underlined, has been so even when Ranil Wickremesinghe was the president before he lost the presidential election to the JVPs Dissanayake in 2024 at a time when the Indian establishment was torn over who it felt might make it to power in Colombo.Ranil is widely perceived as pro-India but the reality is that he spoke a lot but did not deliver much, the source went on.According to this understanding, the situation hasnt changed radically after the JVP won the presidential contest in 2024 and swept the parliamentary election the next year.Despite promises, there is little on the proposed expansion of the Jaffna international airport or the introduction of a commercial shipping line between Nagapattinam in Tamil Nadu and Kankesanthurai in Jaffna. But a passenger streamer now plies between the two ports.IMAGE: Nitin Nabin with the five member Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna delegation. Photograph: @BJP4India X/ANI PhotoStrategic Importance of EngagementThis is a key reason why the Indian government is wooing Silva, the JVP general secretary who is considered both an ideological warhorse as well as a practical person who understands the changing world.Silvas word, it is known, counts a lot among the JVP leaders as well as the rank and file.Compared to some other JVP leaders who remain lukewarm towards India, Silva has spoken publicly more than once about the need to jettison the Marxist partys earlier ingrained anti-India worldview -- for the sake of Sri Lankas economic and social stability and progress.While India insists on provincial council elections in Sri Lanka, something the JVP has never been happy about, New Delhi hopes to make JVP leaders realise that devolution should not be seen as a stepping stone towards Tamil separation but as a counter to that idea.Some Indian officials believe that Sri Lanka needs to integrate as much as possible with Indias economy, including in Tamil Nadu, while strengthening its existing global trade and business framework.This is considered important for the progress of Sri Lankas northern and eastern provinces, the former war theatre which now sit at the bottom of the countrys economic evaluators.This is important for the JVP too. Unless the JVP is able to show economic success in the districts with dominantly Tamil and Muslim populations, nothing will help it repeat in the next election the unprecedented wins it reaped in 2024-2025 in the Tamil region.For all this, it is important for India to have an understanding ally in the echelons of power in Sri Lanka. This is why Tilvin Silva matters.Photographs curated by Anant Salvi/RediffFeature Presentation: Rajesh Alva/Rediff