Sri Lanka, Sept. 30 -- JVP General Secretary Tilvin Silva was all smiles with Indian external affairs minister S. Jaishankar in a hand-out photo issued to the media during his five-day visit to India. Mr. Silva's visit - though not necessarily a destiny-making moment of navigating geopolitical rivalry, as local policy buffs and foreign media tag any visit by a Sri Lankan leader to India or China- nonetheless offers interesting insights into JVP's socialisation in foreign relations.

Mr Silva is leading a five-member JVP delegation on the invitation of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) under its global outreach programme. The distinction between the party and the state is important here because unlike in China, where both are the same, in ...