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OPINION JULY 29, 2022 | The Indian Eye 12

Protesters taken over the office of Sri Lanka Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar briefs the media on the present situation in Sri Lanka af-
in Colombo on Wednesday. (ANI Photo) ter the meeting with the Floor Leaders of political parties in Parliament, in New Delhi on Tuesday.

they had common demand of ousting from multilateral institutes as well on. Political stability and a settled believe on the strength of the peace-
the Rajapaksa government and bring as bilateral partners. Sri Lankans are government are the prerequisite to ful protest, but also Ranil Wickrem-
about changes in the political system. relying heavily on finalization of the revive the economy. esinghe and all the 224 parliamen-
Since April this year, despite the IMF bailout package. UN, World There is a bleak possibility that tarians who seem to be trying the
Aragalaya on the streets, parliamen- Food Programme, World Bank and the economic, political, and social patience of the protestors.
tarians have not felt the urgency to some bilateral partners have com- aspirations of the protestors will be Many in the Western media have
show some political will to address mitted humanitarian assistance, but fulfilled anytime soon. Hence ‘Jana- raised the possibility of military take-
people’s concerns. The parliament assistance from some countries in- tha Aragalaya’ is likely to continue over. This is unlikely given that the
in May passed the electricity amend- cluding US and Japan will depend for some more time. Though the Sri Lankan military is usually sub-
ment bill, which ended the bidding on the successful negotiation of IMF protestors are determined to con- servient to the political forces (even
process to award contract for energy deal. An unsettled and unstable gov- tinue the struggle through peaceful though there was an incident of failed
projects. This is contrary to the de- ernment will not only delay the ne- means, there is a possibility that as military coup in 1962). Further, the
mand for introducing transparency gotiation process, but also affect the the protest continues, a section in the depth of the ongoing economic cri-
to address the corruption and poor implementation of the IMF condi- society that believes in anarchy or in sis may not encourage the military
governance. The political parties tionalities including the debt restruc- adopting violent means to bring re- to take over as it is well known that
have agreed to curtail the power ture negotiation with the creditors, quired political changes takes over there is no easy solution to the crisis.
of executive Presidency. However, improving the governance system and decides the nature and scope of To address the question of po-
three different draft bills for the pur- and so on. the Aragalaya. Alternatively, there litical legitimacy and to effectively
pose were put forward in the Par- In addition to the financial aid may be also an attempt to sabotage execute and implement plans to deal
liament as different political parties and assistance, Sri Lanka needs to the people’s peaceful struggle by in- with the economic crisis and bring to
have different takes on the issue. implement policies to revive its econ- stigating violence. an end to the popular uprising, the
Majoritarianism and politics omy by strengthening various sectors The main onus to prevent any prudent option for Sri Lanka is to go
based on ethnicity and racial divide including tourism, remittances, ex- such situation lies not only on the for fresh elections. However, the sit-
are the key features of Sri Lankan port, agriculture, investment and so perseverance of protestors who truly uation right now is not economically
politics that have empowered many conducive to conduct the elections.
of the corrupt leaders. As a result, Elections can ideally take place only
many parliamentarians would like after an all-party leadership strikes
to maintain the status quo and may an agreement with the IMF and oth-
not give their consent to any systemic er bilateral and multilateral partners,
change. The NUG experiment in Sri and eases the economic pressure on
Lanka during the period 2015–19 ut- the people.
terly failed as political parties simply Dr Gulbin Sultana is Associate
refused to be united even on matters Fellow at the Manohar Parrikar
related to highest level of national Institute for Defense Studies and
security concern. Almost same bunch Analyses, New Delhi
of leaders are continuing in the par-
liament. This leaves little room for Views expressed are of the author and
optimism that things will stabilize do not necessarily reflect the views of
soon in the coming days. the Manohar Parrikar IDSA or of the
Without political stability, there Government of India.
is little hope for economic stability. This is the abridged version of the In-
To meet the immediate econom- troduction of the book which appeared
ic needs of the people in terms of Protestors come prepared to face the tear gas shelling by security forces first in the Comment section of the
supply of food, fuel, medicines and deployed outside the residence of Sri Lankan Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe, website (www.idsa.in) of Manohar Par-
deal with the economic crisis, the rikar Institute for Defense Studies and
island requires financial assistance in Colombo on Wednesday. (ANI Photo)
Analyses, New Delhi on July 21, 2022

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