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Fri, Nov 15, 2024 | Jumada al-Awwal 13, 1446 | DXB
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Massive protests outside Sri Lankan parliament amid economic crisis
People demand resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa
People hold placards as they demand Sri Lanka's President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign after his government lost its majority in the parliament. — Reuters
Amid the ongoing economic crisis in the country, Sri Lanka witnessed massive protests outside its Parliament on Tuesday, with people demanding the resignation of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa.
“We are peacefully asking for Gotabaya Rajapaksa, the President and Mahinda Rajapaksa, the Prime Minister to go home and leave the people alone and peaceful,” a protestor said.
“The inflation is rising, the food prices, especially the rice prices have gone up by over 100 per cent when this President came (Gotabaya Rajapaksa), a kilo of rice was 80 (Sri Lankan) rupees, which has gone up to above 200 (Sri Lankan rupees)... there are 13-14 hours of power cuts... there is not even paper to write exams,” a female protestor said, adding, “Rajapaksa needs to go because he is incompetent”.
The country is reeling through a round of protests from a wide section of the society, with Food vendors in Sri Lanka accusing the Rajapaksa government of selling everything to China adding that the country has nothing and it had bought everything from other countries on credit.
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Prices of fruits and vegetables are skyrocketing in Sri Lanka amid economic and political crises. A fruit vendor, Farukh said: “Three to four months back apple was sold at Rs500 per kg, now it is Rs1,000 per kg. The pear was sold at Rs700 per kg earlier, now it is sold at Rs1,500 per kg. People don’t have money.”
“Sri Lankan government sold everything to China. That is the biggest problem. Sri Lanka has no money as it has sold everything to China. It is buying everything on credit from other countries,” he added.
Members of the hotel association and its staff members also protested outside the tourism board in Colombo in heavy numbers in rain.
“The tourism industry had fallen since the Easter bombings and then the Covid-19 came. There has been absolutely no hearing to the call of all these tourism stakeholders who are here today,” Gerard Mendis, Chairman, Chefs Guild of Sri Lanka said.
“Tourists need to be back in the country, that’s all we need... we don’t have any problems with any parties, any politicians, but we all need our tourists to be back,” said Mark, a protesting chef.
Amid the unprecedented economic crisis in Sri Lanka, the leader of the Opposition, Sajith Premadasa has called for abolishing the Executive Presidential system.
Sri Lanka is battling a severe economic crisis with food and fuel scarcity affecting a large number of the people in the island nation. The economy has been in a free-fall since the onset of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Sri Lanka is also facing a foreign exchange shortage, which has, incidentally, affected its capacity to import food and fuel, leading to the power cuts in the country. The shortage of essential goods forced Sri Lanka to seek assistance from friendly countries.
On Sunday, 26-member Sri Lankan Cabinet Ministers submitted resignations amid rising public anger against the government over the economic crisis.
Meanwhile, the 36-hour-long curfew that was imposed on Sri Lanka on Saturday evening at 6pm was lifted on Monday morning at 6am but the country is still under a state of emergency.
Earlier on Saturday, India delivered 40,000 MT of diesel to Sri Lanka to help ease the power crisis in the island country. As part of the US 500 million oil line of credit (LoC) extended by India to Sri Lanka, this was the fourth consignment of fuel delivered to Colombo.
Further, India has supplied around 200,000 MT of fuel to the island nation over the last 50 days.
- Asia
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