11/07/2022
in Delhi, India
Sri Lanka: As the protestors stormed the official residence of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe called an emergency meeting with party leaders in order to control the current situation today.
According to local media reports, the meeting was also attended by the Speaker where the ministers urged Mr Rajapaksa to tender his resignation in order to stabilise the situation in the country.
Earlier this month, newly-appointed Prime Minister Wickremesinghe said that the nation was targeting 5 billion dollar for repayments and 1 billion dollar to support the country's reserves.
The discussions with the International Monetary Fund (IMF) are currently going on and was optimistic that the negotiations would conclude this month.
Today thousands of protesters in Colombo stormed the president's official residence and secretariat today amid months of mounting public anger over the country's worst economic crisis in seven decades.
Military personnel and police were unable to hold back the crowd, as they chanted slogans asking President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to step down.
On 8 July, an indefinite curfew was imposed across Sri Lanka’s capital and the military placed on alert ahead of a planned rally demanding the ouster of the embattled President.
Parliamentary speaker Mahinda Abeywardana said the President decided to step down to ensure a peaceful handover of power. He had requested the public to respect the law and maintain peace. The protesters, who was demonstrating at the president's house, said it was time to get rid of the president and the prime minister and to have a new era for SriLanka
Analysis
With the storming of presidential palace by the protestors who have been waging a relentless peaceful battle for the past few months demanding the resignation of Srilankan President Gotbaya Rajpaksa for taking responsibility of leading the country's economy in to a brink of a collapse, Srilankan economic and political crisis has reached a tipping point.
Things have come to such a disastrous stage owing to the obduracy displayed by the President Gotbaya Rajpaksa hitherto in not paying heed to the legitimate demand from the people for his resignation.
His efforts to pacify the growing resentment of his countrymen by appointing Ranil Wikremasinghe ,a seasoned politician, as country's prime minister did not yield any desired results on the ground.
It is parties across the political spectrum in Srilanka stood united and usher in measures to steer the country from its crippling economic and political quagmire.
Experts IAS General Studies Research Centre
