Was There A JVP/FSP Role In The Mass Upsurge In Sri Lanka?

NEW DELHI: Largely missing from the Indian media coverage of developments in Sri Lanka is the role of left-wing organisations such as the Janatha Vimukthi Perumana (JVP) and its more radical offshoot, the Frontline Socialist Party (FSP). There’s growing suspicion (perhaps more so in the Sri Lankan government) that the mobs on the streets are not as leaderless as they may appear, and that the level of planning and coordination they displayed was alarming for its timing and sophistication. Dr Harinda Vidanage, head of the department of strategic studies at the Sir John Kotelawala Defence University in Colombo, believes the FSP is the vanguard of the hardliners in the movement, although he acknowledges they may have been surprised at the sudden departure of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa. “Nobody expected the president to go, nobody expected the president’s house to be taken over,” he says....Read More