Exclusive Interview - Jaffna Monitor

‘Because I Loved It’: The Jaffna Tamil Hailed as ‘Father of Italian Cricket’ Speaks to Jaffna Monitor

Italy’s recent victory over Nepal — a side widely regarded as far superior in the associate cricketing world — has raised more than a few eyebrows. For many, it was an upset. For those who know the deeper story of Italian cricket, it was something else entirely: a reminder of a forgotten past making itself heard once again. Cricket was once a visible presence in Italy. One of the country’s oldest sporting institutions, the Genoa Cricket and Football Club, founded in 1893, still carries the name

Exclusive Interview February 2026

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Feb 14, 2026 — 10 min read

“Had Prabhakaran Accepted the International Rescue Plan, Thousands — Including Himself — Would Have Survived” — Erik Solheim

For a generation of Sri Lankans who came of age during the ceasefire years, the name Erik Solheim was never far from the headlines. As Norway’s chief peace facilitator in Sri Lanka’s conflict, he was a constant presence. For me personally, his name was woven into my teenage years. He was on the news almost daily — praised by some, vilified by others — yet always central to the unfolding drama of a country at war and searching, however briefly, for peace. Today, Solheim is known globally as an

Exclusive Interview February 2026

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Feb 8, 2026 — 29 min read

“Balasingham Saw the End — Prabhakaran Believed He Was Invincible”: G. L. Peiris on Sri Lanka’s Failed Peace Process

G. L. Peiris was at the epicentre of Sri Lanka’s peace negotiations with the LTTE and occupied senior office under three successive governments during one of the most consequential phases of the conflict. In his new book, The Sri Lanka Peace Process: An Inside View, he revisits that period with the benefit of temporal distance and retrospective clarity. In this interview with Jaffna Monitor, Peiris confronts the charge that his narrative assumes the posture of a detached observer and explains w

Exclusive Interview January 2026

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Jan 30, 2026 — 26 min read

“India Has Not Softened Its Position on the 13th Amendment”: Indian High Commissioner Santosh Jha Tells Jaffna Monitor

On India’s 77th Republic Day, Jaffna Monitor sat down with Indian High Commissioner to Sri Lanka, Santosh Jha, for a wide-ranging conversation on constitutional devolution, cyclone relief, fishermen’s disputes, stalled port projects, and other key issues. Jha is no stranger to Sri Lanka's complex political terrain. He first served in Colombo from 2007 to 2010 as Counsellor at the High Commission, handling commercial and economic affairs during the critical post-conflict transition. It was durin

Exclusive Interview January 2026

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Jan 26, 2026 — 17 min read

“Colombo Was a Global Port—and a City of Inequality”: Ajay Kamalakaran

Few foreign writers understand Sri Lanka as deeply as Ajay Kamalakaran does. Since falling for the island in 2003, this Mumbai-born, Palakkad-rooted journalist—raised in New York and seasoned in Russia—has returned almost every year, travelling from Colombo to Jaffna, learning Sinhala, and excavating the forgotten histories that lie beneath Sri Lanka’s surface. Over time, his writing has brought back into view stories that quietly slipped out of public memory: the old Boat Mail that once carrie

Exclusive Interview January 2026

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Jan 21, 2026 — 18 min read

“Grasp Every Opportunity, Don’t Be Afraid” — Sir Nishan Canagarajah

Life can be quietly ironic. Less than a month after I interviewed Professor Sir Sabaratnam Arulkumaran and titled the piece “The First Sri Lankan Tamil Knight in 50 Years,” another Sri Lankan Tamil was honoured with a knighthood. This time, it was Nishan Canagarajah, Vice-Chancellor of the University of Leicester. At the age of fifteen, while his elder brothers were studying at universities outside Jaffna, a Grade 9 Nishan spent three days and nights at Jaffna Hospital caring for his dying fath

Exclusive Interview January 2026

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Jan 11, 2026 — 24 min read

"Prabhakaran Was Very Clear-Eyed That He and His Family May Die Fighting for Tamil Eelam” — Anita Prathap Speaks Exclusively to Jaffna Monitor

If not for the bravery and persistence of Indian journalist Anita Prathap, the Sri Lankan state might well have succeeded in burying the truth about Black July 1983. At a time when the government was determined to deny that any pogrom had taken place—and when the state machinery worked overtime to suppress every whisper of anti-Tamil violence—it was Anita Prathap who broke the silence on the international stage. Defying the odds, she travelled to Sri Lanka and became one of the first foreign jou

December 2025 Exclusive Interview

Aruliniyan Mahalingam

Jan 7, 2026 — 18 min read

Tilvin Silva Functions as Sri Lanka’s Shadow President, Says Mano Ganesan in Conversation with Jaffna Monitor

To grasp the shifting currents of Sri Lanka’s politics, Jaffna Monitor sat down with Mano Ganesan—Member of Parliament and leader of the Democratic People’s Front (DPF) and the Tamil Progressive Alliance (TPA), both part of the Samagi Jana Balawegaya, the country’s main opposition. What follows is a no-holds-barred conversation with one of the most outspoken voices in Parliament. How do you see the one-year performance of the NPP government? Although it may still be too early to draw firm conc

Exclusive Interview October 2025

Our Special Correspondent

Oct 4, 2025 — 19 min read