Buddhist monks from Sri Lanka’s Bodu Bala Sena (BBS) announced they will launch a party to “protect Buddhist culture” as there was a “threat” from minorities in the country.

Speaking to The Indian Express, Chief Executive Dilantha Withanage said his organisation’s activities in Sri Lanka are “inspired by what the RSS and BJP do in India” and that the BBS would launch “a party modelled on these Indian ventures to protect Buddhist culture in Sri Lanka”.

The monk warned that minorities were reproducing at a much higher rate than Sinhalese families and that this was supported by money from abroad.

“There are lots of similarities between India and Sri Lanka,” Mr Withanage said.

“Both of us face threats from Muslims and minorities who are actively engaged in conversions. When Sinhalese families have a child or two, minorities have half a dozen or more. When foreign money plays behind such activities, we need to resist. So Modi and his party is a great inspiration for us,

“We are not against any religion. We don’t spread hatred against anyone. But it’s true that we do deliver hard speeches on certain truths that we believe in, to protect Buddhist values in Sri Lanka,” he said.

The chief executive said although the BBS has had disagreements with former President Mahinda Rajapaksa, as he was trying to “woo the Muslims and minorities”, his brother and former defence secretary Gotabaya Rajapaksa supported the organisation.

“We know him very well. He collected the right information from the army intelligence that favoured us. That helped him defend us from conspiracies against BBS,” the monk said, adding Mr Rajapaksa “understood our intentions better”.

But the group's admiration laid with another regional leader.

“We wish we had a leader like Narendra Modi,” Mr Withage said. “We have a very positive understanding with Modi. We admire him as a leader. Unofficially, there have been personal relations and talks with RSS and BJP leaders…We will soon launch active political talks with our Indian counterparts.”