Sri Lanka took to market-oriented economic reforms in 1978 for the same reasons India was forced to 12–13 years later.

In the end, the BJP as a party, Narendra Modi as a leader, and other individuals such as Arvind Kejriwal and Kiran Bedi succeeded. In the case of India, in comparison, the country’s political right and left-under not-so-identical circumstances-sought to exploit the unsuspecting anti-corruption initiative of Anna Hazare in what became a long run-up to the 2014 parliamentary polls. India’s non-violent freedom movement may not have been an inspiration here, but the results were near-similar, including the yet-to-be probed arson attacks. He who had master-minded the military victory over the dreaded LTTE was baffled when it came to deploying the security forces against peaceful protests hijacked by ‘left-leaning, non-violent insurgents’. The Gota-created fault-lines, of which ‘organic farming’ was one of many in recent months, ensured that both groups enjoyed mutual support and much sympathy from the rural folk. They started the protests in small groups, along with the more organised left-leaning trade and student unions that remained strong and motivated through the past decades of a market-driven economic reforms policy (unavailable in India since). In the process, the Aragalaya became deadly as it combined the traditional right, liberal, anti-socialist and selectively anti-graft, anti-Rajapaksa urban middle-class segments. This decision took what remained an urban forex-cum-fiscal crisis, understandably attributable mainly to global Covid lockdowns, to every rural home in the Sinhala-Buddhist South that formed the Rajapaksa constituency. Yet, Gotabaya Rajapaksa, who fled, committed hara-kiri by ordering an overnight switch-over to ‘organic farming’, in ‘true Tughlaq style’. Some urban opinion-makers have been working overtime since Mahinda Rajapaksa became President in 2005 to overthrow the clan either electorally, like in 2015, or otherwise-as has happened now.

It is wrong to conclude that the Rajapaksas lost out only because of economic mismanagement. The Aragalaya protests ensured the wholesale exit of the Rajapaksa clan, but there is no knowing if they will not return in the distant future.

Like in his six prime ministerial terms in less than three decades, he will not complete the full five years in his dream job of being President not in this innings.

Now, he has made a ‘back-door’ entry through a quick-fix parliamentary vote approved by the Constitution. He lost the nation-wide presidential polls in 19 and skipped three more in a row in 2010, 20, anticipating failure. President Ranil Wickremesinghe is third-time lucky.

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