Srilanka, Sept. 12 -- On September 8, Indian Defence Minister Ranjith Singh arrived in Colombo. It was the first visit of an Indian Defence Minister to our country in 38 years. It is also the first visit of an Indian Defence Minister to Sri Lanka since the controversial deployment of the Indian Peace Keeping Force (IPKF) during the late 1980s.
The Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) at that time vociferously decried the deployment of Indian troops here and what it referred to as Indian interference in Sri Lanka's internal problems. It accused the then government of traitorously selling the country to India.
The JVP took up arms against the then government and even went so far as to call for the death of then president. Posters with the slog...