By Jayantha Jayaweera –

I watched Lionel Bopage’s recent interview on 23 September 2026, and I disagree with his account of the JVP’s early years.

He said the organisation was formed in 1968 or 1969. That is not how I understand its history. Rohana Wijeweera returned to Ceylon in early sixties for his father’s funeral. His Soviet student visa was cancelled, and he never completed his medical degree. After returning, he joined the Communist Party faction led by N. Shanmugathasan. He later broke away and formed the JVP.

The JVP’s five classes were used to recruit and educate young people, particularly unemployed graduates and village youth. The final class dealt with revolution and armed struggle. The movement was preparing for violence before the April 1971 insurrection. In March 1971, an explosion while cadres were making bombs at Nelumdeniya killed several people and injured Victor Ivan, known as Podi Athula, who lost an arm.

Mr Bopage also spoke about the demonstration outside the American Embassy in Colombo. He claimed that the faction led by G I D “Castro”Dharmasekera organised it with the blessing of ministers in Mrs Bandaranaike’s government, intending to expose and destabilise the JVP. I have not seen evidence for his claim about the ministers, and I do not accept it.

My understanding is that Dharmasekera led a breakaway faction that disagreed with Wijeweera’s approach. Dharmasekera favoured a clandestine guerrilla strategy influenced by the Cuban “foco” theory, rather than an open, public mass movement. That disagreement matters when considering who organised the demonstration outside the American Embassy and why.

Many of those involved in the demonstration were university students. I recall the names Desabandu Suriyapatabadhi, Dayapala Thiranagama, Jayatissa Kulathunge and Reginald Cooray being associated with that group. A police officer was killed during the demonstration. I do not deny that the incident was followed by arrests of JVP activists. But it does not explain away the JVP’s decision to launch attacks on police stations across the island. The movement had been organising camps and training cadres before the embassy incident. Who is Mr Bopage trying to fool?

That is why I object to the way he described the newly elected government’s response to the JVP. His account places the responsibility on the government while giving too little attention to what the JVP itself was preparing to do.

I was a JVP member. I was arrested in May 1971 and spent six months on remand. I was taken to the CID’s infamous fourth floor. One full-time activist who had taught classes to me and many other young people was in tears, blaming Wijeweera for what had happened to him. I have not forgotten that.

I recently spoke to Professor Jayadeva Uyangoda about something Chandrika Kumaratunga said at the launch of his poetry book. She said he had not touched a weapon during the 1971 insurrection. He told me that was true and that he was proud of it. I was deeply disappointed by his response. A leader does not have to carry a weapon to bear responsibility for the path a movement takes and the lives lost along the way.

There is another contradiction that troubles me. Professor Uyangoda earned his doctorate at the University of Hawaiʻi, and Mr Bopage earned a doctorate at an Australian university. Yet the JVP opposed private universities in Sri Lanka. I believe young people in Sri Lanka should have opportunities to pursue higher education too.

I have concerns about the JVP’s current leadership under Anura Kumara Dissanayake as well. In particular, I believe its conduct during the final stages of the Aragalaya, including events around Parliament, deserves scrutiny. Those who lived through 1971 should be able to question both the movement’s past and its present without having their memories dismissed.