If you're looking for a metaphor to sum up the NPP’s misguided political saga in the North, look no further than the old Tamil saying: "வேலியில் போகும் ஓணானை எடுத்து வேட்டியில் விட்டுட்டு குத்துதே, குடையுதே என்றானாம்" (“They took the garden lizard headed for the fence, tucked it into their veshti, and now complain that it’s biting and scratching.”)
That, in essence, is the story of Naveena Ravanan—real name Pon Suthan—a self-styled firebrand Tamil nationalist who briefly honeymooned with the NPP at a time when the party was hell-bent on fielding anyone with a pulse for the local government elections. He didn’t contest himself, but his sister and a few ready-made loyalists ran under the NPP flag. In recent weeks, Ravanan has returned to the streets of Iyakkachchi, staging dramatic protests against the very party he was recently feasting with.
It’s worth recalling what we wrote in our last editorial: in their desperate bid to secure local seats, the NPP flung open its doors to opportunists, political crooks, and jokers like him. And now, predictably, it’s come back to bite them. After the NPP came to power, Ravanan repositioned himself as their face in Pallai. The once-fiery nationalist—who used to shout slogans of ethnic purity and hail Prabhakaran as Suriya Devan to keep his diaspora funders happy—suddenly began quoting Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, as if he were born waving the red flag. His once fringe meetings quickly became headline events, attended by no less than Prime Minister Harini Amarasuriya and NPP’s Northern organiser Bimal Rathnayake, who even visited his farm for a meal—an event Ravanan triumphantly flaunted on Facebook.
But the romance soured fast. After the NPP refused to appoint his sister to a representation seat in the local council, Ravanan flipped. He launched a crusade— staging press conferences, leading protests, and now portraying himself as the aggrieved victim. And so, people are asking the obvious question: Why was he welcomed into the NPP in the first place?
One can only hope that the NPP’s Northern leadership has learned a lesson or two from this absurd episode. If not, they’d better keep their veshtis tighter next time.
