Wimal: A Govt.puppet says JVP

By Sandun A. Jayasekera
JVP frontliner, Vijitha Herath yesterday charged that the dissident Parliamentary Group Leader, Wimal Weerawansa wanted to carry out the government agenda within the party and wanted to make the JVP a puppet of the Mahinda Rajapaksa regime.

After the Mahinda Rajapaksa government declined the 20 conditions offered in 2006 by the JVP to support the government and ditched the party by forming the cabinet with the UNP dissidents, the JVP wanted to form a ‘National Front’.

Even at that stage there had been conspiracies against the party within, he said.

The party would send formal invitation to Mr. Weerawansa and 10 dissident group members as it was the party tradition to invite all members for the annual convention, Mr. Herath told yesterday.

The political fate of JVP Parliamentary Group Leader, Wimal Weerawansa and the dissident group supporting him will most probably be decided before the party’s Annual Convention on May 27 as the JVP Central Committee (CC) is to convene and discuss the dispute before next Monday, party strongman and CC member Parliamentarian, Vijitha Herath said.

“The charges against Wimal Weerawansa have become more serious after his statement in Parliament and forming a dissident group against the party.

The party had given enough time for him to correct himself and come back to the fold after replying to the charges levelled against him. He has failed to do that.

However, he still has time to respond to the charge sheet,” Mr. Herath said.

Commenting on certain remarks Mr. Weerawansa had made during a TV talk show, Mr. Herath said not only Mr. Weerawansa but majority of the CC members and Parliamentary Group members agreed to support the government in 2004 and accept cabinet portfolios on conditions.


But later the party withdrew from the Government and wanted the new Mahinda Rajapaksa government to meet 20 conditions if that regime wanted JVP support, he said.

“The difference was Weerawansa wanted to extend unconditional support. The party was ready to support only if the government met our conditions. Meanwhile President Rajapaksa took 17 UNP Parliamentarians to the government fold, offered them ministerial portfolios after ditching the JVP.

Despite all these belittling to the JVP by the government Weerawansa continued to toe the line of the government which was the core of the dispute,” he stressed.

Mr. Weerawansa had failed in his duty as the Parliamentary Group Leader to follow the instructions of the party and had declined to make statements against the eviction of Tamils from lodges in and around Colombo, comment on the escalating prices of essential commodities and the cost of living and condemn the arson attack on Leader Publications, Mr. Herath said.

Asked whether there was any damage caused to the party with the departure of Mr. Weerawansa, Mr. Herath said he was only the voice of the party that conveyed the decisions and policies of the party to the membership and the country.

The party would appoint someone else capable of doing that in the future and the replacement would not affect negatively to the party.