Sri Lanka has declared a state of emergency and things are going from bad to worse. The entire cabinet has resigned today which includes all of the 26 ministers but President Gotabaya and Prime Minister Mahindra Rajapaksha didn’t and instead named 4 new cabinet ministers pitching a unity government.
Protestors have gathered near Mahendra Rajapaksa’s house and were greeted with water cannons this was the result of clinging on to power and awaiting the last roll of the dice. The Rajapaksa’s have reached out to the opposition and called it a unity government.
What does it even mean?
Is this even a serious offer?
Do they stand a chance of surviving in office?
And the biggest question is what’s next for Sri Lanka?
Pictures from the protest can show you how public anger against Rajapaksa is growing and amidst this, they tried a face-saver in which the entire Sri Lankan cabinet resigned including key family members like Basil Rajapaksa (The finance minister and the brother of Gotabaya and Mahindra Rajapaksa), Namal Rajapaksa (Minister of Sports and Youth Affairs also son PM Mahindra Rajapaksa and the presumed heir of this political dynasty), and more.
According to some reports, Namal Rajapaksa’s wife has left Sri Lanka along with her parents, there’s no confirmation regarding this report but there’s no doubt that the situation is precarious and the people of Sri Lanka are angry with the Rajapaksa who’re unable to get a grip on this situation.
The cabinet resignation has been called a “farce” because the top leadership has not resigned and made an offer to the opposition by saying they want to form a unity government but how genuine is this offer?
There’s a reason why this question has been asked because when cabinet ministers resign, they come to effect only when the president accepts them but that hasn’t happened here, the ministers have not submitted their resignation to the president instead they went to Mahindra Rajapaksa instead and it was the prime minister who got the resignation letters, not the president which raises another question Is this just a stunt?
Were the Rajapaksa serious about changing the entire cabinet or was it a plot to get the protestors to cool down?
Increasingly this mass resignation is looking like a stunt and president Gotabaya Rajapaksa has already named a new finance minister his name is Ali Sabri, who was earlier the justice minister, and how has been shifted to the finance ministry. The previous minister of foreign affairs, education, and highways have been reinstated or retained rather.
People are venting their anger both on social media and streets, The opposition has rejected the idea of a unity government demanding a political model that works and quoted “An Interim government is nothing but internal party politics”.
The Rajapaksa’s are not politically weak, they command a two-thirds majority in parliament, they control all the levers of power in Sri Lanka and their crisis is very different what they should do is justify their grip on power because they’re facing a public uprising and under their watch, Sri Lanka has suffered 13-hour long power cuts every day, Shortage of Petrol and Diesel, Shortage of life-saving medicines and food and this crisis have brewed for weeks before exploding which resulted in the loss of popular support.
The cabinet shuffle at best may be able to delay the consequences but may not be able to avert the inevitable.
Published By: JAINAM SHETH
Edited By : KRITIKA KASHYAP
