New Delhi, March 28: The Sri Lankan food and fuel crisis is likely to haunt the island nation's first family-the Rajapaksas. The clan holds as many as nine positions in the government-the prominent ones being the President, the Prime Minister and the Finance Minister.
Amid a severe food shortage and daily hardships pressed by power cuts and shortage of fuel, people are launching daily protests. Angry crowds have begun to call for President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's head. With fragile tempers at petrol pumps, the government had to station troops at fuel stations to maintain law and order.
Now people have begun to flee the Indian Ocean island due to the regular power cuts, long fuel queues and rising prices.
Sri Lanka expert at the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA), Gulbin Sultana told India Narrative that the pressure is mounting on the Rajapaksa family. "People are asking for snap elections as they are unhappy over the economic situation".
It is not just the people. There are cracks in the ruling coalition as well. In early March President Rajapaksa sacked two cabinet ministers for criticising his younger brother Basil Rajapaksa, who runs the Finance Ministry, for the economic turmoil in the country. The action boomeranged as the sacking of the two senior ministers made more coalition partners angry.
Now, in a direct and serious challenge to President Rajapaksa, a member of parliament from his own party- Wijeyadasa Rajapakshe, has handed over a bill introducing the 21st amendment to the constitution to the parliament Secretary-General.
The bill says that through the 21st amendment, the powers of the president should be transferred to the Cabinet which shall be responsible to the parliament. The MP has also proposed the election for a new president upon which the new president will elect a new prime minister, reports Sri Lankan newspaper, the Daily Mirror.
Sultana says: "We have to wait and see what happens. Even if elections are held, it again depends on who is contesting the elections from within the Rajapaksa family and who is contesting from the opposition".
She points out that the Sri Lankan opposition is yet to put up a united front. "Former Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe had earlier proposed a 'national unity government' to oversee the economic crisis. But later, he withdrew his statement and said that the current economic and financial crisis can be dealt through a national consensus".
Regarding the island's economic crisis, she says that the support from India and even loans from the International Monetary Fund will only help Colombo tide over its crisis in the short term. "The loans only give them breathing space for the short term. The government will have to sort out its funding crisis by itself. It is a crucial time for Sri Lanka".
Till then, it is the people who pay the price for the rulers' grandiose policies, Chinese debt trap plans and a ruined economy.
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