SLFP Gen. Secretary Maithripala Sirisena yesterday (March 17) said that the JVP would have been in a far stronger position today, had it supported the UPFA government’s military campaign against the LTTE. Addressing the media at the Mahaweli centre, the minister said that had the JVP stayed with the government, it would have been ahead of the SLFP at the forthcoming parliamentary election.

A smiling Sirisena said that the JVP could have shared the credit for Sri Lanka’s triumph over the LTTE with the ruling coalition, when the Army finished off the LTTE on the banks of the Nanthikadal lagoon last May.

He said that the JVP should not have spurned President Mahinda Rajapaksa’s invitation to join his government after the November 2005 presidential election. Had they accepted the President’s invitation, they could have achieved their political goal. Sirisena recalled that immediately after the last parliamentary election, the JVP had vowed to form the next government, though today they were in a pathetic state due to their political miscalculations.

The JVP won 36 seats and obtained three slots through the UPFA National List at the last election.

Minister Sirisena asserted that the UNP, too, could have benefited politically had it backed the war against the LTTE.

He said that the JVP and UNP were in such a dismal state that they could not even release their own manifestos without resorting to plagiarism. Referring to Wednesday’s launch of UNP and DNA (Democratic National Alliance) policy statements, he said that both parties had based theirs, to a large extent, on Mahinda Chintanaya II.

He accused UNP leader Ranil Wickremesinghe of trying to deceive the farmer community by undermining President Rajapaksa’s government. He said that Wickremesinghe and his UNF administration had done absolutely nothing to boost agriculture. Although, UNP leaders played a different tune today, people would never forget how they had neglected agriculture during the UNF administration. Wickremesinghe, was nothing but a failure, who had caused immense damage to local economy because of his short-sighted policies. The UNP could never absolve itself of the blame for selling off the assets of the Paddy Marketing Board. He cited several examples to prove that UNP politicians and their associates had obtained them for a song.

He said that President Rajapaksa had stopped the despicable practice of selling of public enterprises. Successive UNP, PA and UPFA governments had followed this policy until the then Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa became President and put an end to that practice.