Sri Lankan Dystopia

By: Sauro Dasgupta
Gotabaya Rajapaksa’s official resignation as Sri Lankan president has been sent to Colombo, and it was formally accepted soon after, following which he first fled to Maldives and then to Singapore.The people had ousted the Rajapaksas for mismanagung the country.
When Ranil Wickremsinghe became the Prime Minister in May, it was hoped that he would be contributing to political stability. But that was not to happen. The people rather entered his residence and burnt it. It was rather more damaging than what happened to President Rajapaksa- his residence was simply occupied by the people. He has appointed a special committee consisting of Chief of Defense Staff, Inspector General of Police and the commanders of the three armed forces. They have been given full freedom to take legal action without any political interference
President Gotabaya became unpopular because people didn’t have enough food to eat and no other essential items were available. The limited stocks were being sold at skyrocket prices. Educational institutes are closed and offices hardly function in a week. The balance of payments crisis is so bad that the country has simply run out of foreign exchange to pay for its imports.
While Rajapaksa may have won a grand victory in 2019, the people who elected him wanted him to leave. India did well in not sending its troops and by clarifying that it would not do so. India would have become unpopular with the Sri Lankans.
Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa has a good chance of being elected President. Therefore, it is important to assuage him on the part of Wickremsinghe that they would be working together to heal Sri Lanka. A multi-party government of Premadasa and Wickremsinghe should restore order. Exports and tourism must be enhanced, along with new avenues to increase the government’s income. India is doing what it can, with promised aid of over $4 billion over and above the existing help to Sri Lanka. India must continue to help Sri Lanka in economic ways, like the recent line of credit given to them. At the same time, India must keep an eye on these disturbing developments in its neighbourhood and try to tackle them well.
(The writer is a PG 2, Department of International Relations, Jadavpur University)