All over the world, a democratic change is being observed. People are fed up with the families ruling over them generation after generation.
by Ali Sukhanver
Mishandling of socio-politico-economic affairs combined with a weak law and order system leads to a catastrophic ending; the worst example of it we are witnessing in Sri Lanka ; once one of the strongest economies. Now things are no doubt at their worst there. Aljazeera recently published an article of Mario Arulthas on 13th of May 2022. The article said, “This week saw the most serious unrest in Sri Lanka since the aftermath of the Easter Bombing in 2019. A month-long protest in Colombo, calling on President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to resign, was attacked by pro-government mobs. Protesters retaliated swiftly, chasing down those who took part in the attacks, with videos and photos of stripped and beaten Rajapaksa supporters circulating on social media. Eight people died in the ensuing violence across the Sinhala-majority south of the island, with more than 100 properties torched, mostly those linked to the president’s party.” According to media reports, the president’s brother Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa had to resign in the aftermath and was replaced by Ranil Wickremesinghe of the United National Party’s (UNP) who had been the Premier of the country for five very short terms in the past. Unfortunately during his prior stints, he himself had always been accused of turning a blind eye to corruption and scuttling opportunities for addressing the decades-old ethnic conflict.
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| India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar, who was on a two-day official visit to Sri Lanka last March, visited a Lanka IOC filling station in Colombo. |
What is that ‘decades-old ethnic conflict’, Nithyani Anandakugan describes very simply in an article published somewhere in 2020, in Harvard International Review. The writer says, “Sri Lanka’s present is haunted by memories of the island’s decades-long civil war, which began in 1983 and ended just over 10 years ago. The war was mainly a clash between the Sinhalese-dominated Sri Lankan government and the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) insurgent group, the latter of which had hoped to establish a separate state for the Tamil minority. The mainstream narrative suggests that the civil war was derived from tensions between the Sinhalese and Tamil ethnic groups. However, the war also represented the legacy of British imperialism.”
Another factor which added to the distress of Sri Lanka is the political dynasty. In an article published on 16 May 2022 in the Indian Express, Nirupama Subramanian said criticizing the ruling Rajapaksa family of Sri Lanka, “In South Asia, no other political dynasty has been as confidently nepotistic. During Mahinda Rajapaksa’s second term as President from 2010-15, there were said tobe more than 40 Rajapaksa family members in government posts, apart from the cabinet. The Rajapaksa family, whose members include Sri Lanka’s Prime Minister and President, hails from Hambantota district in the south. President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and his brothers Chamal, PM Mahinda, and Basil are third-generation politicians, while the fourth generation is represented by Mahinda and Chamal’s sons Namal, Yositha and Shashindra.”
All over the world, a democratic change is being observed. People are fed up with the families ruling over them generation after generation. Certainly the post Covid economic disaster added a lot to the distress of the people of Sri Lanka and today the roads and streets of Sri Lanka are presenting a picture of a horrible battlefield. Political unrest becomes less harmful when economy of a country is strong and the people are prosperous. It is something very unfortunate that Sri Lanka, a close friend of Pakistan, is suffering from the worst political and economic instability at present; certainly this situation is the result of many years’ mismanagement, mishandling and negligence of those who had been ruling the country generation after generation. If the government had taken care of all ethnic groups and tried to keep a political balance, the situation would never have been so painfully disastrous.
Another important factor which brought Sri Lanka to the verge of destruction is foreign intrusion particularly from the Indian side. It is a bitter reality that India has always been supporting rather financing different miscreant groups in Sri Lankajust to fulfil her own hegemonic designs and desires. As far as India is concerned, it is their habit rather instinct to promote and support the problem-creating elements in neighboring countries. And more unfortunate fact is that a country, always eager to interfere in neighboring countries, doesn’t have even the ability of taking care of its own people. Be it the Christians, Muslims or the Sikhs, in India life is nothing but a threat to everyone other than the Hindus. The worst target of religious prejudice in India is the Sikh community. The BJP government has a strong desire to throw away all Sikhs out of the Indian land. For the purpose the game of Sikh victimization is on for the last many years. The Sikh community living in India has been trying since long to get rid of the continuous humiliation and disgrace at the hands of the Hindu extremists by striving for an independent Sikh territory Khalistan. The Sikhs living all over the world have joined hands together to materialize the dream of Khalistan. For the purpose they have arranged a referendum known as the Khalistan Referendum.
Recently the BJP financed media has started a new propaganda move against the Khalistan Movement by blaming that the Khalistan Movement is designed and patronized by Pakistan’s premier intelligence agency the ISI. A few days back the ‘Opindia.Com’ reported with reference to the Intelligence Bureau of India that Pakistan’s ISI has created a new outfit ‘Lashkar-e-Khalsa’ and this Lashkar has started recruiting Afghan fighters for terror activities in India with the support of Pakistan’s ‘notorious’ spy agency ISI. The IB report further said that the newly formulated group ‘Lashkar-e-Khalsa’ is active on social media and recruiting people to execute its nefarious designs. Another news agency ANI said with reference to the IB report that an alleged Pakistani Intelligence Operative using the pseudonym ‘Amar Khalistani’ is actively making efforts to cultivate new recruits through a Facebook ID to plan terrorist activities in the country.This alleged Pakistani intelligence operative isreportedly managing multiple Facebook pages under the name of ‘Azad Khalistan and Kashmir’.
Such childish allegations, on one hand prove the inability and unskillfulness of the Indian security and intelligence agencies and on the other hand prove professional supremacy of the ISI over them. By levying such baseless allegations India is desperately trying to defame Pakistan on one hand and to crush the Khalistan movement on the other hand. Certainly our friends in Sri Lanka won’t have forgotten the exclusive interview of LTTE leader Kumaran Pathmanathan with VK Shashikumar of Media Grove.Kumaran Pathmanathan is now in Sri Lankan custody. He admitted that India started training the Tamil rebels in the early 1980s around the time when peace talks were floundering. India also allowed the LTTE and other militant groups of Sri Lanka to set up base in Tamil Nadu and provided them huge funding and weapons also. The same story of interference and intrusion is still going on. Exploiting the present circumstances in Sri Lanka, the Indian manipulators are trying all their best to add more fuel to fire. No doubt things would be soon in a better condition in Sri Lanka as the Sri Lankan nation seems determined to face all challenges and revive its lost glory but one thing must always be kept in mind; no neighboring country must be allowed to interfere in country’s internal matters.
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