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Cyclone Ditwah has tested the NPP’s crisis governance even as the party retains considerable support in Jaffna, despite stalled reconciliation and unresolved ethnic concerns
Cyclone Ditwah struck and ravaged across the country, causing significant destruction to people’s lives and livelihoods in late November 2025. Although Jaffna was not severely affected by the recent calamity, central and south-central districts, such as Kandy, Nuwara Eliya, Badulla, Matale, and Kurunegala, as well as north-western districts like Puttalam and Chilaw, and eastern areas like Batticaloa and Trincomalee, were. Satellite imagery from the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has shown the extent of destruction. The cyclone has affected over 1.4 million people from more than 407,594 families across the island. Those affected are in dire need of support from immediate recovery programmes.
Cyclone Ditwah indeed poses a major challenge for crisis governance for the National People’s Power (NPP) for better coordination, urgency, and leadership. Moreover, delays arose due to insufficient awareness about the crisis. Some reports claim that the government had ignored early warnings issued by the Department of Meteorology as early as 12 November (although this is contested). Another shortcoming was the lack of coordination among the different agencies. Important information was not disseminated in all three languages — Tamil, Sinhala, and English. The Tamil versions were delayed until the day of the cyclone, 28 November.
Furthermore, challenges such as ethnic-related issues, post-war reconciliation, demilitarisation, and power devolution largely remain unaddressed. While the government has claimed that approximately 672 acres of land in Northern and Eastern areas have been returned to their original owners, there is still land occupied by the military. The government has also not taken concrete steps to prevent the Departments of Wildlife Protection, Archaeology, and Forests from continuing contested land acquisitions under the pretext of environmental protection or reviving lost Buddhist sites in predominantly minority areas.
The limited progress on reconciliation and resolving ethnic concerns demonstrates that the NPP’s politics of unity have been rather rhetorical.
The NPP has also proposed a potential alternative framework for power devolution, which will act as a smaller unit than the provincial system on many occasions. Sri Lankan President Anura Kumar Dissanayake has also said that “Provincial Councils will continue, but they are not the solution to our national question”, indicating that the NPP does not seek Provincial Councils as a permanent measure. This would move away from the existing Provincial Council and the 13th amendment to the Constitution. However, the NPP’s stance on the Provincial Council has been ambiguous and lacked consistency.
The limited progress on reconciliation and resolving ethnic concerns demonstrates that the NPP’s politics of unity have been rather rhetorical. Some would argue that the party’s focus on anti-corruption and accountability over ethnic issues signals a shift in discourse from identity politics to one of ‘Sri Lankanness’ and unity, stressing equal citizenship and rights for all citizens. The NPP has used this rhetoric to justify setting up committees that are disproportionately filled with members from a particular community or profile, such as a key presidential task force and the ‘Clean Sri Lanka’ programme, both devoid of any Tamil and Muslim representation.
While this ‘Sri Lankanness’ narrative might be well-intended, it risks increasing the marginalisation and minoritisation of minority groups. It also signals a lighter political will of the state to address ethnic fault lines and root causes of the conflict, which are necessary to transform a society that has undergone considerable disruption, conflict, and instability.
Despite these shortcomings, the NPP remains fairly popular in Jaffna. Across the 12 interviews the author conducted with academics, teachers, journalists, civil society members and students, the respondents stated that they were still willing to give the NPP a chance to deliver due to disillusionment with traditional political parties. While the Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP), the main political party in the NPP, has been around since the 1970s, it was at best seen as a ‘third force’ securing less than 5 percent of the votes. The NPP does not have political baggage and is not associated with the entrenched system of corruption, patronage, and elitism, unlike other political parties and groups. While some were hopeful that the government would eventually deliver on reconciliation and ethnic-related issues, others argued that the NPP’s anti-corruption and economic recovery efforts should remain a priority amid the country’s ongoing economic stabilisation and fiscal consolidation programme.
The NPP has handled this issue in a more considerate manner. For instance, the police did not stop large crowds from commemorating, unlike previous years
These sentiments were articulated even though Tamil nationalism and identity politics remain intact in different forms. For instance, Maaveerar Naal, which serves as a day of remembrance for the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) cadres who lost their lives during the civil war, was observed across Jaffna a day before the cyclone occurred. However, the memorialisation has been exclusionary because only LTTE soldiers can be commemorated and not members of other Tamil militant outfits. The NPP has handled this issue in a more considerate manner. For instance, the police did not stop large crowds from commemorating, unlike previous years (although there were some incidents of security forces intimidating those preparing and convening the commemorations). Jaffna Tamils may have taken a pragmatic view of political and economic realities by continuing to support the NPP.
Some commentary following the cyclone emphasises the NPP government's incompetence in early preparations, issuing timely warnings, and raises concerns about the adequacy of its post-cyclone search, rescue, and recovery efforts. However, informal conversations that the author has conducted have provided a more nuanced perspective. While some people mentioned that the NPP responded immediately to engage with people on the ground and set up temporary shelters, others expressed confidence in cooperating with the government because of its transparency and genuineness. The ongoing recovery efforts have been compared to those carried out by the then Mahinda Rajapaksa government, which allegedly misused local and foreign funds collected after the 2004 tsunami. Significant amounts of the fund officially reserved for the ‘Helping Hambantota’ initiative allegedly went to unregulated private accounts of the Rajapaksa family.
While shortcomings persist, there is some recognition that the state’s capacity remains constrained by the scale of destruction caused by Cyclone Ditwah, as well as by the ongoing effects of the 2022 economic crisis and International Monetary Fund (IMF)-mandated austerity programme. Amid these constraints, various forms of support have emerged from different groups. Local communities have stepped up as the first responders, providing shelter, food, and other essentials. Similarly, fundraising campaigns were initiated by Sri Lankans living abroad to send donations and humanitarian support and emergency grants were given by foreign governments, particularly India, to provide emergency supplies, air assets, medical aid and engineering equipment to assist in the national rescue operations that have assisted to some degree.
The recovery will be a long and challenging process. Communities that were reeling from the economic crisis are now facing another challenge that has disrupted their lives, livelihoods, and well-being once again.
However, it is difficult to assess whether these sentiments project a broader consensus, given that Jaffna was not one of the worst-affected districts during the recent calamity. Frontliners in many areas have faced immense challenges in accessing or rescuing people. Some families have lost everything overnight due to severe flooding and will now need to rebuild from the ground up. The recovery will be a long and challenging process. Communities that were reeling from the economic crisis are now facing another challenge that has disrupted their lives, livelihoods, and well-being once again.
Cyclone Ditwah has greatly tested the NPP’s capability in disaster response, crisis management, and recovery operations. It has also heightened concerns about how the ongoing IMF programme of fiscal consolidation and austerity measures will exacerbate poverty in both urban and rural areas. While nearly half of Sri Lankan households were placed under the ‘poor’ category as of the end of 2024, these communities are likely to feel the impact of the cyclone more acutely. The state’s narrative of economic stabilisation and recovery efforts is likely to be greatly undermined by the recent disaster.
Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa has asked the government to withdraw the recent budget for 2026 and propose a new one with a spending plan that places Cyclone Ditwah at the centre. He also stated that the current budget and fiscal framework fail to consider the post-disaster issues, given that the cyclone has created fiscal pressures. While the IMF has approved US$206 million of emergency assistance to support recovery efforts, this is only a short-term relief. The NPP should consider revisiting the current agreement with the international institution and establishing a new one that includes protections for vulnerable groups.
Roshni Kapur is a Doctoral Student at the University of Ghent, specialising in caste and land issues in Sri Lanka. She is the editor of the volume ‘Sustainable Energy Transition in South Asia: Challenges and Opportunities’. She has more than a decade of experience working in academia and policy research.
This article draws in part on fieldwork conducted by the author in Jaffna for three weeks in November 2025.
The views expressed above belong to the author(s). ORF research and analyses now available on Telegram! Click here to access our curated content — blogs, longforms and interviews.
Roshni Kapur is a Doctoral Student at the University of Ghent, specialising in caste and land issues in Sri Lanka. She is the editor of ...
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