India naturally worried about consequences and spillover of protests: Min
Terming the situation in Sri Lanka as a “very serious crisis,” External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said India is naturally worried about its consequences and the “spillover” it can have for the country.
Underlining this point during the all-party meeting to discuss the situation in the island nation, Jaishankar, however, dismissed suggestions about such a situation arising in India.
Political parties from Tamil Nadu, including the DMK and the AIADMK, had demanded an all-party meet before Parliament’s monsoon session began and suggested that India should intervene to help the neighbouring country overcome the crisis.
“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”.
M Thambidurai (AIADMK), Saugata Ray (Trinamool Congress), Farooq Abdullah (National Conference), Sanjay Singh (Aam Aadmi Party), Keshava Rao (Telangana Rashtra Samithi), Ritesh Pandey (Bahujan Samaj Party), Vijayasai Reddy (YSR Congress) and Vaiko (MDMK) were among those who attended the meeting.
Continued on Page 2
Lanka faces ‘very serious crisis’: Jaishankar to Opp
P Chidambaram and Manickam Tagore (Congress), Sharad Pawar (NCP) and TR Baalu and M M Abdulla (DMK) too attended the meeting.
Jaishankar, who made the initial remarks, and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi, were among the senior members of the Government at the briefing.
The External Affairs Minister later informed the media that 38 leaders attended the all-party meeting. “We had invited 46 parties, 28 parties attended. From our side, there were 8 ministers, including Pralhad Joshi and Purshottam Rupala,” Jaishankar said.
The Government gave two presentations to the leaders, including from a political perspective and from a foreign policy view. The participants explained the political turbulence and economic crisis besides the debt situation, he said.
On India facing such a situation, the Minister said, “Many members were concerned about lessons of Sri Lanka and we had anticipated that question. We also have seen some very misplaced speculation in the Press saying something has happened in Sri Lanka so we should be worrying about situations in parts of India.”
Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis in seven decades, with a severe foreign exchange shortage hampering the import of essentials, including food, fuel and medicines.
The economic crisis has also sparked a political crisis there after a popular uprising against the Government.
The meeting here was to be chaired by Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Minister of External Affairs S Jaishankar. However, Sitharaman could not attend the meeting. Jaishankar apologised for her absence and presided over the meeting.
India has been helping Sri Lanka with fuel and ration supplies as the country faces its worst economic crisis. Last week, Jaishankar said India had committed USD 3.8 billion to Sri Lanka. India has also handed over 44,000 metric tonnes of urea under a credit line extended to help Sri Lankan farmers.