- Tuesday, March 04, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
INDIA’S external affairs minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar on Tuesday (19) said in an all-party meeting held in New Delhi that the country’s southern neighbour Sri Lanka is facing “a very serious crisis” that makes India naturally worried. He also dismissed suggestions that a similar situation could arise in India.
Besides Jaishankar, who made the initial remarks, and India’s parliamentary affairs minister Pralhad Joshi who were present at the meeting from the Narendra Modi government’s side, some opposition leaders such as P Chidambaram, Manickram Tagore, Sharad Pawar and others were also present. Representatives from the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK), the ruling party of the southern state of Tamil Nadu for which Sri Lankan politics is relevant, were also there.
“The reason we took the initiative to request you all to join an all-party meeting was…this is a very serious crisis and what we are seeing in Sri Lanka is in many ways an unprecedented situation,” Jaishankar said.
“It is a matter which pertains to a very close neighbour and given the near proximity, we naturally worry about the consequences, the spillover it has for us,” he added.
Jaishankar also said there have seen some “misinformed comparisons” in the context of Sri Lanka wherein some people have asked whether “can such a situation happen in India”.
Sri Lanka is undergoing its worst economic crisis in seven decades with a severe foreign exchange shortage hampering the import of daily essentials, including food, fuel and medicines. The economic crisis has also sparked a political crisis in the island-nation after a popular uprising against the government which saw president Gotabaya Rajapaksa fleeing and resigning.
Acting president Ranil Wickremesinghe has declared a state of emergency in the country. Political parties from Tamil Nadu such as the DMK and the AIADMK (All India Anna Dravida Muunetra Kazhagam) had demanded at an all-party meet before the Indian parliament’s monsoon session that New Delhi should intervene in the crisis shrouding the neighbouring country.
