*Dr Ved Pratap Vaidik

Sri Lanka, our neighbouring Island nation is confronting an unprecedented misfortune. Similarly our next door neighbour Pakistan is also into a serious turmoil. It is unfortunate, the deep dark clouds of anarchy is looming large over our two neigbouring nations.

Whatever may be the decision of the Supreme Court of Pakistan and whether the Lankan government headed by the Rajapaksa brothers survives or not, the political theatre of our two neighbours is in serious mess.

 In Sri Lanka, the President, the Prime Minister and three of the cabinet ministers are from the same Rajapaksa family. Perhaps now Lank has gained the dubious distinction of having the first ever family run government in the world. When brothers, cousins and nephews usurp powerful positions in the state administration, the government will naturally turn dictatorial. The Rajapaksa family turned out to be the Royal family of Sri Lanka.

 The economic crisis in Sri Lanka has become so severe that two days ago the entire cabinet resigned. It needs to be noted, among the four ministers who were re-appointed, Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa was missing. The entire nation has been incensed at the Finance Minister for inflation has been going through the roof. Rice has been selling at Rs 500 Rs/ kg, sugar at Rs.300/kg and milk powder at a whopping price of Rs.1600 per kg. Markets look deserted. Customers have no money to buy anything, even grocery and other essentials.  A normal family needs to spend a minimum 2,500 to 3000 rupees to quell their hunger and survive.  People are latterly starving.

One should not be surprised if in the in the next few days, the news of looting by the public at large is reported from Sri Lanka. There is severe scarcity of petrol; diesel and cooking gas because the government does not have sufficient hard currency reserve to pay the import bills. People are fleeing to neighbouring Indian for survival. Sri Lanka’s Central Bank Governor Ajith Nivard Cabraal has resigned from his post after the country plunged into a severe shortage of foreign currency that left the government unable to pay for essential imports, including fuel.

There are three major pillars of Sri Lanka’s economy- revenue from tourism, foreign currency remittance from Lankans residing abroad and export of textile. During the Covid pandemic revenue from all the three fronts slowed down considerably. Foreign debt escalated to a staggering $12 billion. As of now, the government has no money to pay even its regular instalments. The export earnings of tea nosedived. The ban on chemical fertilizers crippled the agriculture sector including the tea.

For the first time in its history Sri Lanka had to import survival.  To propel popularity among the public the incumbent Rajapaksha government that ascended the throne in 2019 reduced various types of taxes and started distributing free food grains. As a result the foreign debt mounted beyond bounds.  Millions took to the streets across the country.  In towns, villages and cities people came out agitating against the incumbent Rajapaksa government. To wriggle out of the worsening situation the panicked government proposed the idea of a united government to the opposition parties which they summarily rejected. The Rajapaksa government first declared a state of emergency and imposed many restrictions on communication system.  Now curfew has also been imposed.

In fact, the island nation of about 22 million people is confronting the most serious economic crisis it has faced since independence from the British Raj in 1948. India has pledged to do anything possible to help the neighbour, but to resolve the escalating crisis and bring back normalcy in Lanka the affluent nations need to step in with tenacity.

*Dr. Vaidik is a widely travelled scholar-journalist. He has visited more than 80 countries on diplomatic and educationalmissions. Dr. Vaidik has won more than a dozen National and International awards for academic and journalistic excellence. He has been a member of several Advisory Committees of Government of India.