Sri Lanka is facing a “very serious crisis” that naturally worries India, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said at an all-party meeting on Tuesday, dismissing suggestions that such a situation was occurring in India. Jaishankar, who delivered the opening remarks, and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi were among the senior members of the government at the briefing, which was also attended by P Chidambaram and Manickam Tagore of the Congress, SharadPawar and T R Baalu and M M Abdulla of the DMK.
“The reason we took the initiative to ask all of you to join the all-party meeting was…this is a very serious crisis and what we are seeing in Sri Lanka is an unprecedented situation in many ways,” Jaishankarsaid.”It’s a matter that concerns a very close neighbor, and given the close proximity, we’re naturally concerned about the consequences, the spillover it has for us,” he added.Jaishankar also said there had been some “misinformed comparisons” with Sri Lanka, with some people asking whether “this kind of situation could happen in India”.
M Thambidurai (AIADMK), Saugata Ray (Trinamool Congress), Farooq Abdullah (National Conference), Sanjay Singh (Aam Aadmi Party), Keshava Rao (Telangana RashtraSamithi), Ritesh Pandey (BahujanSamaj Party), Vijayasai Reddy (YSR Congress) and Vaiko (MDMK) were among those who attended the meeting. Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis in seven decades, and a severe shortage of foreign exchange is hampering imports of essential goods, including food, fuel and medicine. The economic crisis also triggered a political crisis in the island nation after a popular uprising against the government. Acting President Ranil Wickemesinghe declared a state of emergency in the country. Political parties from Tamil Nadu such as the DMK and AIADMK demanded in an all-party meeting before the start of the monsoon session of Parliament that India intervene in the crisis engulfing the neighboring country.
