India’s cheekiest foreign minister ever, Mr Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, meeting with the JVP leader Anura Kumara is what they call a “diplomatic slap”. And that slap is clearly targeted at Mr Ranil Wickremasinghe.
It is how Prime Minister Modi tells Ranil that he doesn’t like him. During the final moments of Aragalaya, India so desperately tried to remove Ranil from his premiership. All their attempts failed.
As Sri Lanka prepares for its ninth presidential election this year, India is trying to get their man in. India had high hopes with Mr Gotabaya Rajapaksa, but they failed to prevent the 2022 regime change. Yet another RAW blunder under the belt of the whimsical Indian Intelligence. India had high hopes with Sirisena as well until Ranil gave the Hambantota Port to the Chinese, which was Ranil’s own diplomatic slap to Modi.
Indian intelligence may not be the best in the world, but they are not that stupid to meet someone like the leader of the JVP based on an unscientific poll that was done by some random “health policy” agency. The self-obsessed WION journos keep proving that they are no different from any other tabloid trash by actually taking local gossip into their mainstream news. They missed the plot entirely. The meeting was not about the JVP at all. It’s about sending a message to Ranil Wickremesinghe (and the US).
And the message is that they don’t want Ranil to run for the presidency. The best way to send such a message is by doing things that grossly undermine the authority of the target. In the eyes of the ignorant public, the JVP symbolises the antidote for Ranil. They are the perceptual archrivals. Entertaining Ranil’s namesake nemesis is enough to downplay the legitimacy of the Lankan president. It’s a double stab because we all know that Ranil treats Anura Kumara as his pawn. Painful.
It must have been rather uncomfortable for Jaishankar to pull out this diplomatic comedy by the orders of the BJP Head. To sit with an insecure man so out of place and out of cloth. The smirk on Jaishankar’s face as he tries to stop his laughter while speaking with the poor man who is desperately trying to act his false image while sweating inside an unfitting suit says it all. “L” was written all over the Indian top diplomat’s face.
On the other hand, it was an inglorious defeat to the JVP's ideological glory. Its founder, the only other RW we know of, the infamous Rohana Wijeweera, must be twerking all over the Borella cemetery. What a grand way to betray the deaths of the thousands of JVP youth who gave their lives against “Indian expansionism”. It had to be done in that very suit symbolising the JVP’s complete submission of whatever the last pieces of their honour.
But the damage has been done. With one stone, India has hit two animals. They have noosed Anura and marked Ranil with a red cross. But if I know anything about Mr Wickremasinghe, it is that he will not go down without a fight. What I’m looking forward to is how the master of vengeance, Ranil Wickremasinghe, the living RW, returns the diplomatic slap to Narendra Modi. This is politics.
Eranda Ginige
*The writer is a social entrepreneur and former presidential advisor. He can be reached at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
