Troubled Sri Lanka
The crisis in Sri Lanka could be attributed, apart from the autocratic style of the Rajapaksas, to the setback the country’s tourism industry — the mainstay of Sri Lanka’s economy — received, first by the onslaught of COVID-19 and then compounded by the Ukraine war. With the present volatile situation in the country not showing signs of abatement, the industry would take many more years to regain its past glory. Its economy is going to plummet only further. India needs to take a number of proactive steps as a neighbour. Apart from economic aid, it has a duty to safeguard the interests of the ethnic community, still treated as aliens in their own country. There is every possibility of the present economic crisis snowballing into an ethnic conflict at some time or the other. Such a situation would have a cascading effect on Indian shores. India has an unenviable task of treading a middle path.
V. Subramanian,
