Sri Lanka: How to Understand the Mess

The installation of a new, and experienced, Government in the island nation is a harbinger of good change, and India must lend a helping handby Prafull GoradiaNow that a responsible and experienced replacement for the unpopular and forcibly ousted Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa has been appointed, it is time for Sri Lanka to decide how it wants to recoup the current economic depression. On the television, Ranil Wickremesinghe, the new Prime Minister, has stated that he has a revival plan.

He has some credibility because of his track record, as well as his having served as the PM five times. What role India wishes to play is for South Block to decide; I personally do feel that India should try and play a significant role in Sri Lanka, especially because of its geopolitical situation.

Both New Delhi and Colombo are aware that India has a 7,500-km coastline in the Indian Ocean. On the other hand, Sri Lanka is strategically at the southern end of the Indian praayadweep (peninsula).

Coming to the current situation in our southern island neighbour, there is an unalienable law and order scenario with Sri Lanka's citizens in open conflict with security forces. I have visited Sri Lanka four times in my lifetime and am somewhat familiar with the political and ethnic issues there, but I must admit that the torching of recently deposed PM Mahinda Rajapaksa's ancestral home in Hambantota by a mob has come as a bit of a shock as people there are generally an amiable and easygoing lot.

However, keeping cordiality is difficult when one has to wage a daily struggle merely to survive; in Sri Lanka's case, the country has been suffering prolonged power cuts (up to eight hours a day in several parts of the country, according to several reports), lack of food and inflated cost of all essential items.Most international agencies have severely downgraded the country's sovereign ratings and its foreign exchange has fallen, too.

Sri Lanka, even in happier times, lived mainly on tea, rubber, coconut and tourism as the main revenue earners. Moreover, the ruling Rajapaksa dynasty's profligate ways and allegations of corruption against the family have only served to light a torch to an already explosive situation.

The discovery of a fleet of some of the world's most expensive automobiles, including Ferraris and Lamborghinis, hasn't exactly been a positive advertisement for responsible behaviour, let alone good governance.If one talks to a Sinhala scholar or journalist, he may well...