THE INDIAN EXPRESS

APLN member Shyam Saran writes for The Indian Express, highlighting that the new President, Anura Kumara Dissanayake, has recognized the importance of India for Sri Lanka’s security and economic development.

The year 2024 has witnessed several setbacks to India’s Neighbourhood First Policy. The recent election results in Sri Lanka may be the latest among them. Pakistan has reverted to escalating cross-border terrorism against India. Nepal has had yet another change of government and K P Oli, who had presided over an unprecedented worsening of bilateral relations, is Prime Minister again. A Bangladesh student movement morphed into a much wider anti-government revolt against Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. She had to flee from her country and seek refuge in India. India has been seen as complicit in her anti-people and corrupt policies, and there is widespread popular anger and resentment against it. More worrying is the resurfacing of radical Islamic elements of the Jamaat and a revival of Pakistani influence in the country. There is a serious security situation looming large in India’s sensitive Northeast, where a dangerous inter-ethnic conflict in Manipur, a violent civil war in Myanmar and now an unstable and hostile situation in Bangladesh, could become intertwined and make India’s eastern flank both unstable and volatile.

Another zone of unpredictability is emerging in India’s southern maritime domain. This may multiply security threats over a wide swathe of India’s periphery. A hostile regime in the Maldives has already tested our diplomatic mettle. There is a real possibility that Sri Lanka’s recent presidential elections could become another inflexion point. Anura Kumara Dissanayake has been elected President at the head of the National People’s Power (NPP), of which the chief constituent is his left-wing radical Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP). This is the first time that none of Sri Lanka’s mainstream political parties will be ruling the country. A pervasive resentment and frustration with successive governments, which mismanaged the economy and were guilty of widespread corruption, opened the doors to an outsider who skillfully exploited the popular angst against the ruling elites.

Read the full article here.