"We Don't Agree with JVP anymore" -India

“We have been discussing the political line of the JVP for sometime now and we don’t agree with it anymore” – India
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by Our Special Correspondent

(February 13, Chennai, Sri Lanka Guardian) The Communist Party of India (Marxist) has decided not to invite Sri Lanka’s Janata Vimukti Peramuna (JVP), a Marxist party, to its 19th party Congress in Coimbatore in view of its increasingly chauvinistic stand on the country’s ethnic crisis. The conference opens on March 29. CPM’s state secretariat committee member G. Ramakrishnan said the party decided to keep out the JVP as “it is opposing all the political solutions and is moving towards a highly chauvinistic position vis-à-vis the ethnic conflict.”

JVP, which started off as a genuine Marxist party in 1965 by Rohana Wijeweera, a medical student in the erstwhile USSR, changed colours and became a Sinhalese nationalist outfit, though it retained its core Communist principles like being anti-US and pro-Palestine and vigorously pursuing trade union activities. Its representatives have attended most of the CPM conferences since 1970. The party is now headed by Somawansa Amarasinghe.

“We have been discussing the political line of the JVP for sometime now and we don’t agree with it anymore. Based on our discussion, the central committee decided to shut the door on JVP,” explained Mr Ramakrishnan.

Quoting the political draft resolution of the party congress that “war can never be a solution to the problem,” he said “the LTTE’s obdurate stand and reliance on armed struggle has only worsened the situation.” The political resolution also pointed out that under Mr Mahinda Rajapakse, the government had not taken any positive decision on autonomy and decentralisation of powers. Though JVP was elected to parliament as part of the United Progressive Freedom Alliance, the party decided to sit in the opposition benches.

Mr. Rajapakse had been elected president based on the support of Sinhala nationalist parties like the JVP and the Jathika Hela Urumaya (National Sinhala Heritage party), the latter a party of Buddhist monks). He had signed agreements with JVP and JHU that he would not dilute the country’s unitary structure while finding a solution.