During the ongoing anti-government protests in Sri Lanka, protesters shouted slogans targeting former president Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his family. But they also raised chants against India.
Slogans like – “Don’t sell the country to India and the US”; “India: Sri Lanka is not another state”; and “India don’t exploit Sri Lanka’s situation” – could be widely heard during the demonstrations.
But while anti-Indian sentiments like these still persist, how Sri Lankans view India might be changing as the country grapples with political and economic chaos.
Sri Lanka is in the midst of a deep and unprecedented economic crisis that has sparked massive protests, and forced its president to quit after fleeing the country.
Over the years, Sri Lanka has built up a huge amount of debt – to the point that it is now struggling to buy essentials such as food, fuel and medicine.
Protesters blame Mr Rajapaksa and his family, who fled to Singapore last week, for the situation. The parliament has begun the process of electing a new president and MPs are expected to vote on Wednesday.
Some sections of the Sri Lankan polity have always viewed with suspicion the presence of its bigger and powerful neighbour, India. I have seen several anti-India protests in Sri Lanka over the years by majority Sinhala nationalists and Left-wing parties.
But when Sri Lanka suddenly found itself in a deep economic mess a few months back, it turned to India and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government in Delhi responded with financial help.
This was not the first time though – in fact, no other country or institution has helped Sri Lanka as much as India in the past year.
Experts say that Sri Lanka’s desperate financial need, in a way, has helped Delhi regain its influence in the island-nation of 22 million people after China made inroads by offering loans and other forms of financial aid for infrastructure projects in the past 15 years.
“India has played a very crucial role, especially at this critical juncture. We have gone through an immense crisis as a country, and India has come forward and supported us,” Sajith Premadasa, Sri Lanka’s main opposition leader, told the BBC.
Source: Colombo Page