A harbinger of good change

24/05/2022

Now that a responsible and experienced replacement for the unpopular and forcibly ousted Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has been appointed, it is time for Sri Lanka to decide how it wants to recoup the current economic depression. On the television, Ranil Wickremesinghe, the new Prime Minister, has stated that he has a revival plan. He has some credibility because of his track record, as well as his having served as the PM five times. What role India wishes to play is for South Block to decide; I personally do feel that India should try and play a significant role in Sri Lanka, especially because of its geopolitical situation. Both New Delhi and Colombo are aware that India has a 7,500-km coastline in the Indian Ocean. On the other hand, Sri Lanka is strategically at the southern end of the Indian praayadweep (peninsula).
Coming to the current situation in our southern island neighbour, there is an unalienable law and order scenario with Sri Lanka's citizens in open conflict with security forces. Most international agencies have severely downgraded the country's sovereign ratings and its foreign exchange has fallen, too. Sri Lanka, even in happier times, lived mainly on tea, rubber, coconut and tourism as the main revenue earners. Moreover, the ruling Rajapaksa dynasty's profligate ways and allegations of corruption against the family have only served to light a torch to an already explosive situation. The discovery of a fleet of some of the world's most expensive automobiles, including Ferraris and Lamborghinis, hasn't exactly been a positive advertisement for responsible behaviour, let alone good governance.
If one talks to a Sinhala scholar or journalist, he may well begin by blaming the cost of Lanka's civil war with its Tamils. He would not admit that the Tamils have been in eastern Sri Lanka since the beginning of civilisation. The dark clouds hovering over Sri Lanka were visible as early as 2020 when the global pandemic struck. International rating agencies like Standard & Poor's and later Moody's downgraded Sri Lanka's long-term sovereign credit ratings. These global agencies had raised the issue of the Sri Lankan Government's fiscal health and its ability to service the debt it had incurred from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund (IMF). The Ukraine war has worsened things for the Emerald Isle. The crisis there needs urgent succour and India must decide how far it wants to go in order to help.

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