Emergency in Sri Lanka

In News

• Sri Lanka’s President declared an Emergency as thousands of people came out on the streets to protest the crippling power cuts and shortages of essential commodities caused by the country’s economic meltdown.

What triggered the crisis?

• Sri Lanka’s economic crisis can be traced to two key developments in the immediate past.
  • The Easter Sunday bombings of 2019 that deterred tourists.
  • The pandemic since early 2020 that stalled recovery and further drained the economy.

History of Emergencies

• Emergency was first imposed in 1958 after Sri Lanka embraced the Sinhala Only language policy, and off and on from 1971 onward, when the left-wing Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna mounted its first insurrection.
• Sri Lanka was under a near continuous state of Emergency for 27 years from the anti-Tamil riots of 1983 to 2011 with brief respites in 1989 and 2001.
• Emergency in 2018 was imposed to contain anti-Muslim violence in some parts of the country that led to the deaths of two people, acts of arson, and damage to property.
• This is the second time within a year that an Emergency has been declared.
  • Last year it was to deal with hoarding of essential commodities when the economic crisis had begun to manifest itself in all its severity.

Process of declaring an Emergency in Sri Lanka

• The power to declare a state of Emergency is vested in the President, who is the head of government, under Article 155 of the Constitution.
• The 1947 Public Security Ordinance (PSO) provides the legal framework for the proclamation of Emergency.
  • Under the ordinance, a state of Emergency can be proclaimed “where the President is of the opinion that it is expedient to do so in the interests of public security and the preservation of public order or for the maintenance of supplies and services essential to the life of the community.
• The PSO empowers the President to frame Emergency regulations for detention, taking possession of property or undertaking; authorisation to enter and search any premises; for amending any law, suspending the operation of any law, and for applying any law with or without modification, without reference to Parliament.
  • The regulations can override all existing laws.
• The Emergency (Miscellaneous Provisions and Powers) Regulations (EMPPR), give special powers of search, arrest, and detention to the national security forces and law enforcement agencies.
• There is also the Prevention of Terrorism (Temporary Provisions) Act of 1979, which has remained on the books even after the civil war has ended.
  • In response to international criticism, the government recently amended this Act, but not enough to satisfy domestic or international critics.

Role of Parliament

• Emergency regulations are valid for a month, but the President must seek ratification for the proclamation or extension beyond a month, every 14 days.
  • The Emergency lapses if it is not brought before Parliament.
• Although the 1978 Constitution limits parliamentary debate on a proclamation’s validity and does not enable it to debate the actual emergency regulations.
  • The PSO does have a provision under which Parliament may revoke, alter, or amend a regulation through a resolution.

Scope of restrictions

• Freedom of thought and conscience: the prohibition of torture, and the right to be heard at a fair trial by a competent court are not subject to any restriction and are thereby to be considered absolute, these therefore may never be restricted by Emergency Regulations.
• The fundamental rights that may be restricted in the interests of national security and public order are:
  • The presumption of innocence
  • The burden of proof, and retroactive penal sanctions
  • Equality before the law and non-discrimination
  • The ordinary procedure for arrests and judicial sanction for detention
  • The fundamental rights to freedom of expression, assembly, association, movement, occupation, religion, culture and language.
• The Constitution says nothing about the extent to which these rights might be restricted.

Major issues/ Challenges faced by Sri Lanka

• Organic agricultural policy: It cut the government’s tax revenue substantially and rushed into an ‘organic only’ agricultural policy that will likely slash this year’s harvest by half.
• Policy failure: The weak and debt-ridden economy with the lingering strain of the pandemic and ill-advised policies accelerated the downward spiral.
• COVID-19 hit Sri Lanka’s key foreign revenue earning sectors hard.
  • Earnings from tourism, exports, and worker remittances fell sharply in the last two years.
• Country could not stop importing essentials and its dollar account began dwindling.
• Fast draining foreign reserves, a glaring trade deficit, and a related Balance of Payments problem came as crucial signals.
• Huge foreign loan obligations and the drop in domestic production compounded the economic strain.
  • Without enough dollars to pay for the country’s high import bill, Sri Lanka continued facing a severe shortage of essentials from fuel, cooking gas, and staple food grains to medicines.
• Lack of essentials: Consumers could not find the most basic things such as petrol, LPG cylinders, kerosene, or milk in the market.
• The value of the Sri Lankan rupee has dropped to 300 against a U.S. dollar putting importers in a difficult spot.
• For the average citizen contending with COVID-induced salary cuts and job losses, the soaring living costs have brought more agony.

Government’s response in improving the situation

• Credit from other countries: India which has extended $2.4 billion this year, and China, which is considering a fresh request for $2.5 billion assistance, in addition to the $2.8 billion it has extended since the pandemic broke out.
• IMF programme: The government has decided to negotiate an International Monetary Fund programme, while seeking support from other multilateral and bilateral sources.

 How does the Sri Lanka crisis affect India?

• India has indicated it would meet the request for the new credit line, to be used for importing essential items such as rice, wheat flour, pulses, sugar and medicines.
• India extended a $400-million currency swap and a $500-million credit line for fuel purchases to Sri Lanka.
• India has also sent around four consignments of 40,000 metric tonnes of diesel to mitigate the spike in power cuts in Sri Lanka.
  • India also sent 40,000 tonnes of rice in prompt shipments to Sri Lanka.
• India is also dependent on the Colombo port: for global trade as 60 per cent of India’s trans-shipment is handled by the port.
• Trade: India has been one of the largest trading partners of Sri Lanka, and one of the top tourism sources.
  • India has annual exports of $4.8 billion to Sri Lanka, which account for 1.3 per cent of its total exports.
• India has also invested in areas of tourism, real estate, manufacturing, communications, petroleum retail etc in the country.
• Economic Aspects: India was one of the biggest sources of foreign direct investment (FDI) in Sri Lanka.
  • Some of the biggest companies in the country have invested in Sri Lanka.
• Threat of Chinese Influence: Sri Lankan government has asked for a 2.5 Bn USD emergency aid from China, there is a threat that China may gain its influence in the island country.
• Refugee Crisis: India witnessed that whenever there is a political or social crisis in Sri Lanka, a large number of refugees come from the Sinhala Land to India through Palk strait & Gulf of Munnar.
• Rise of Rebel Groups in Sri Lanka: This economic crisis may give a new life to already redundant rebels who are trying to find a cause to fuel up the issue.
• Humanitarian Crisis: India is the only immediate neighbour of Sri Lanka and as we see, there is a bigger threat of large-scale humanitarian crisis looming over the country.

Way forward

• But even with all this help, Sri Lanka can barely manage. Recovery will neither be fast nor easy.

Source: IE