3rd April 2022

 3rd April 2022

Musings…….

SriLanka Burning 

What can gross mismanagement of the economy give you ? Well the answer is Sri Lanka. 

Once upon a time, this island nation was considered a budding tourist destination with a vibrant democracy. All this seems to have changed for the worse within a few years.  

Sri Lanka’s history as we all know has been a chequered one.  There was long years of civil war between the Singhalese speaking Government and the Tamil speaking LTTE in broadly speaking terms. 

The centre and southern part of Sri Lanka is predominantly Singhalese speaking natives who form the majority and hold power in every government. The Tamil speaking minority is restricted to the North of Sri Lanka including in the district of Jaffna, and form the minority. 

This internal strife lasted for years and there seemed no respite. We Indians can never forget this as we lost one of our most  dynamic Prime Ministers Shri. Rajiv Gandhi to a terrorist attack by the LTTE, for trying to foster peace between the warring factions. 

Years later, the Sri Lankan government finally found some respite when since the death of Vellupally Prabhakaran, Leader of LTTE, the civil war came to an end and calm prevailed. 

Subsequently the Rajapaksa Government under Mahindra Rajapaksa which was considered pro- China lost re-election to a combined force of Maithtipala Sirisena- Ranil Wikramasinghe and all seemed well.  Economy was flourishing and tourism boomed and Sri Lanka seemed to be on everyone’s envy list in early 2015. 

All this changed on the fateful day of 21st April 2019, the day when extremist terrorists bombed three churches and three luxury hotels in the capital Colombo. Since then everything has been on the downhill for Srilankans. 

The Sirisena- Wikramasinghe government bore the blame for the attacks. They were largely held responsible as internal issues between the coilition partners was largely attributed to the misstep in governance. 

It was reported that the government had received intelligence reports on the planned bombings !  This grave security lapse was not forgotten and in the subsequent elections, the coalition was thrown out by the Srilankans. 

Then came the rule of Rajapaksa brothers in late 2019 where more than 9 members of the family now holds Cabinet positions. 

As we know the Rajapakses are considered pro- China in their policies and they did not disappoint. They seem to have literally sold SriLanka to China. 

Major infrastructural and tourism projects including ports, airports, highways, bridges were leased out to China on exorbitant rates of interest, denting the exchequer. 

To add to more worries, Covid pandemic happened and tourism suffered the most.  

Tourists dried up and thereby a major source of revenue for the government dried up.  Gross mismanagement of the economy from the Rajapakse brothers, added to their misery and now the Government finds itself in huge debt to China and is reeling under a Balance of Payment (BoP) crisis. 

The only way out for Sri Lanka seems to be to accept a bailout of IMF ( International Monetary Fund ) and live under strict economic measures. It is unsure how the Srilankan government will handle the debts towards China. 

China sees SriLanka as a port of influence due to its proximity towards India and wants to control the Island nation. They have invested heavily in SriLanka and even their “ String of Pearls” foreign policy strategy including building Hambantotta port in Stilanka is part of this broad policy. 

India seems to be helping SriLanka now with Kerosene and diesel and funds for emergency use. After all SriLanka is strategically important as far as India is concerned. As we speak there is a declared Emergency in SriLanka facing huge protests against the President. 

It is left to see how things will turn out for SriLanka as they face 18 hour long power cuts and water shortages. India should stand with their Lankan brethren in this times of disarray, to reduce its dependence on China, and take it as an opportunity to rebuilt its influence in South Asia. 

Food for Thought …….

RC