II ANTI-IPKF WAR – JVP STYLE
With the signing of the Indo-Lanka Accord and the induction of the Indian army, opposition to devolution became amalgamated with anti-Indianism, and the new combine became the main leitmotiv of the JVP’s ‘liberation struggle’. It justified everything—from the killing of Vijaya Kumaratunga to unplugging incubators at the main Children’s Hospital during the JVP led health workers strike.
The killing of Vijaya Kumaratunga is as seminal as the Pathirana assassination in forming an accurate understanding of the real nature of the Second JVP Insurgency. By early 1988 Kumaratunga had become the undisputed leader of the anti-racist and anti-JVP left. Kumaratunga was sympathetic to the JVP initially. He publicly condemned the proscription of the JVP and tried to get Rohana Wijeweera to turn himself in, in return for de-proscription. A similar deal worked in the case of the CP and the NSSP, both proscribed after the riots; Wijeweera however disagreed and Kumaratunga’s attempts came to nothing.
As the JVP’s racism and its targeting of leftist competitors became obvious Kumaratunga changed his stance. The JVP’s decision to ally itself with the SLFP on an anti-devolution platform further widened the gulf between Kumaratunga and the JVP. The definitive break came with the Indo-Lanka Accord. Kumaratunga was a vocal supporter of the Accord and the provincial council system. When the JVP murdered Nandana Marasinghe in November 1987 – and banned any funeral ceremonies as unbefitting a traitor, a common JVP practice throughout the insurgency – Kumaratunga not only attended the funeral but also delivered a stinging speech criticising the JVP by name. In January next year he was the main speaker at the commemoration meeting for Daya Pathirana at the New Town Hall. He again named and blamed the JVP, something other left leaders were unwilling to do, either due to ideological confusion or fear or both.
Kumaratunga was also working tirelessly to set up a pro-devolution left front as an alternative to the UNP and the SLFP. The United Socialist Alliance (USA) was registered as a political party and Kumaratunga at a meeting of more than 50 political parties, trade unions and mass organisations held at the New Town Hall on 26th December 1987 announced his intention of contesting the upcoming Presidential election as the USA candidate. Both the JVP and the SLFP were virulently critical of the USA and Kumaratunga; they saw in him a formidable obstacle to their political progress. The editorial of the official organ of the SLFP, Dinarasa, stated the party’s stance plainly:
- “This united front was formed in a hurry and the foundation for it was laid in last October to support the UNP at a presidential and a parliamentary election. It must be immediately exposed that this front is an anti-people, unpatriotic front which serves the right while being on the left. This is being formed not unknown to JR…. Now those six parties are hoping to register under a common symbol as a single party…. Their secret objective is to contest election, confuse the progressive voters and thereby assist the UNP. If this group tries to behave in this politically lumpen manner, people must be ready now itself to treat them with embul polpithi” (Dinarasa - 10.2.1988)
The inaugural meeting of the new front was to be held on the 21st February, 1988 at the Sugathadasa Stadium. The JVP struck on the 16th of February. Kumaratunga was shot dead by a JVP gunman in front of his house, as he was about to set off to keep an appointment at the American embassy. After the assassination the JVP issued two leaflets justifying this most heinous crime. The first was by its alter ego—the Deshapremi Janatha Viyaparaya (DJV – Patriotic Peoples Movement) chillingly titled, ‘Why was Vijaya Kumaratunga dispatched?’ The charges against Kumaratunga included conspiring to break up oppositional votes at the coming Presidential election, supporting Eelamists, consorting with the Americans and supporting Indian invasion. More important was the second leaflet, issued on the day of Kumaratunga’s funeral, by the official JVP. This listed a number of reasons as to why Vijaya was a ‘traitor’ deserving death. An extensive quote is apposite because it would provide a glimpse of the politically twisted worldview of the JVP:
- “Is Vijaya Kumaratunga obtaining weapons to kill JR?... The USA Front has got together with Eelam terrorists of EPRLF and PLOTE and binging weapons to Colombo and other parts of Sri Lanka….to destroy the JVP progressives and all anti-UNP individuals and institutions… We pledge that we will sweep away these reactionaries together with the UNP from the face of earth…. Vijaya Kumaratunga was a cat’s paw for the LTTE, EPRLF, PLOTE terrorists…. (He) was also a puppet of Indian imperialism, American imperialism, JR Jayewardene and Eelamists” (official JVP leaflet of 21.2.1988).
Kumaratunga was killed because he presented the only real danger to the JVP from the left. He was charismatic and popular. By 1988 he had developed a clear line on both the ethnic problem and the JVP. Unlike the traditional left he had not been tarnished by association with an unpopular government. He thus had the potential of becoming a non-violent but left, radical but sane alternative to the JVP. And the JVP during its second insurgency was as intolerant of potential or real competitors on the left, as the LTTE is. Kumaratunga thus had to be ‘dispatched’.
When the government announced the holding of provincial council elections, the JVP imposed a boycott on the country. It prevailed upon the SLFP not to contest and launched a systematic campaign against the UNP and the USA candidates and supporters. Meetings were attacked and candidates and supporters were murdered in cold blood. Since the JVP declared the provincial councils to be tantamount to dividing the country, any person or party supporting or participating in the system became a traitor by definition. The JVP passed the death sentences and the DJV carried them out.
The DJV was the unofficial armed wing of the JVP during the second insurgency. It was headed by a politburo member, Saman Piyasiri Fernando, whose nom de guerre was ‘Keerthi Wijayabahu’. But unlike the original Keerthi Wijayabahu who waged a long and successful war against Chola invaders, this latter day imitator carefully refrained from targeting a single member of the ‘Indian Invading Force’. This campaign of voracious and lethal violence was characterised by the JVP (and by its allies and enemies) as an anti-Indian struggle with the objective of liberating Sri Lanka from the Indian yoke. However none of the targets, none of the victims were from the IPKF. Instead its victims were exclusively Sri Lankans—from UNP politicians to radical left activists; from policemen to soldiers; from bus drivers who refused to obey the JVP’s constant strike orders to voters who disregarded the JVP ban and went out to vote.
This anomaly was remarked on by an observer as sympathetic as Prins Gunasekara:
- “Their anti-Indianism was extended more to the field of trade and commerce sanctions, an embargo on India exported/produced goods, than in the fighting field. The DJV banned the use of even India-manufactured drugs and medicine or anything imported from that country. The DJV/JVP are credited with the killing of Gladys Jayewardene, sister-in-law of President Jayewardene, Chairperson of the Pharmaceutical Corporation. Her crime: not adhering to the JVP/DJV order not to import Indian medicine… They (the JVP) would have even formed a united front with Premadasa to fight the bogey of the ‘Indian invaders’—the IPKF, as Chiang Kai Shek was compelled to join with the Maoist Communists, in fighting the Japanese invasion. Yet the hawks in the JVP/DJV combine appear to have been busy planning the assassination of their political dissidents— University Professors, University students, media employees, Buddhist monks in sympathy with the government and trade unionists who disagreed with them...” (Sri Lanka in Crisis, A Lost Generation: The Untold Story)
Unsurprisingly the Indians never regarded the JVP as a threat, an enemy. Therefore it is hardly surprising that J N Dixit, in his memoirs of his stint in Sri Lanka as the Indian High Commissioner, gives no indication whatsoever that India/the IPKF considered the JVP to be a threat (unlike the LTTE). Prins Gunasekara provides confirmation:
- “But the evidence that has started trickling in, in recent times, makes me wonder whether their anti-Indianism was really so… Many student activists of the IUSF, in sympathy with the JVP, had been seen visiting the Indian High Commission in Colombo, even telling them that they had nothing to fear from the JVP, that the Indian Embassy officials need not be evacuated to the security of the Taj-Samudra Hotel. These overtures to the Indian Embassy had been rewarded by extensively issued visas to students and others to escape to India, in the difficult months soon after the assassination of the JVP leadership...” (ibid).
There were two critical moments in the second insurgency when the democratic polity almost abdicated power to the JVP. The second time was in mid-1989 when the JVP literally paralysed the system through its strikes, curfews and acts of economic sabotage. Premadasa’s public demand for the withdrawal of the IPKF was made as a respond to this critical situation. Given the state of the nation by mid 1989 Premadasa had little choice in the matter, as even the more observant Indian commentators understood. “With Premadasa’s government under siege from the JVP it was perhaps essential that he made some dramatic gesture to buy time, and since the removal of the IPKF is the most prominent of the JVP’s demands, asking for its withdrawal was perhaps the best way to do it” (Frontline - 10-23 June 1989).
The JVP unsurprisingly was completely dismayed by President Premadasa’s announcement which deprived them of the most effective slogan against the ruling UNP. Not just the JVP but also its allies and supporters considered ‘anti-Indian struggle’ exclusively as a stick to beat up their political enemies with — as the SLFP did in the case of Vijaya Kumaratunga. Incidentally if staunch allies such as Anura Bandaranaike reacted with horror to a mere, politely worded (as the Frontline stated, “The President’s speech was couched in the politest of terms” - ibid) verbal request by the President of the Republic for the immediate withdrawal of the IPKF, one can imagine their reaction if the JVP really did conduct an armed struggle against India/IPKF instead of targeting Sinhalese? Perhaps the JVP conducted the only kind of anti-Indian struggle its camp followers and allies could stomach and wanted—a bogus one.
To be continued.
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