It signalled that India had marked out Mr Dissanayake as the country’s possible future president with an NPP majority government. The Indian Prime Minister did not take long to reciprocate the visit and undertook a state visit to Sri Lanka in April 2025. He was accompanied by NPP MPs Kitnan Selvaraj and Ilankumaran Karunanathan, JVP’s Central Committee Member Janaka Adhikari, JVP’s Media Unit Head Hemathilaka Gamage and the party’s International Relations Department member Kalpana Madhubhashini. The icing on the cake, as far as JVP-India relations are concerned, is Tilvin Silva agreeing to visit India as its guest. A Colombo District non-Buddhist MP had claimed that he will “handle the Buddhist revival”, but some Buddhist MPs had shut him down, saying he should instead look after his own multi-religious constituency.

Source: Sunday Times February 14, 2026 19:49 UTC