On a day when Sri Lankan Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa returned to Colombo from New Delhi after clinching a $1 billion line of Indian credit to Sri Lanka to help it tackle its ongoing economic crisis, angry Sri Lankans protested outside his elder brother President Gotabaya Rajapaksa's secretariat in the Lankan capital.
It was the latest in a series of vociferous protests against the Rajapaksa government in recent days. Sri Lanka's worsening foreign exchange shortage has seriously impacted its energy sector, which depends entirely on imports for its oil needs. The fuel shortage has led to long queues at understocked petrol pumps across the island nation.
Friday's demonstration in Colombo by members of the Socialist Youth Union targeted what protestors alleged was the Rajapaksas's selling the country's most important natural assets to India.
India and China are engaged in a constant tussle for influence in Sri Lanka and New Delhi appears to have won the latest round by extending a $1 billion loan.
'There are no special conditions the repayment will be in three years,' Basil Rajapaksa said. Local importers, the Lankan finance minister explained, are now free to import goods from India under the loan facility with the local trade ministry employing a transparent process to facilitate importers, PTI reported.
The Indian line of credit came a month after Sri Lanka purchased 40,000 metric tonnes of diesel and petrol from India's oil major Indian Oil Corporation to meet its urgent energy requirements.
Please click on the images for glimpses of the protests in Colombo against the worsening economic crisis.
IMAGE: Socialist Youth Union members wear masks of Sri Lankan President Gotabaya Rajapaksa, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa and Finance Minister Basil Rajapaksa alongside two men dressed in the symbol of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation with a rope in the Indian national flag colours at a protest in Colombo against the worsening economic crisis that has brought fuel shortages and spiralling food prices to the island. All Photographs: Dinuka Liyanawatte/Reuters
IMAGE: Socialist Youth Union protestors shout slogans against President Gota outside the president's secretariat.
IMAGE: Security forces have struggled to keep the protestors from breaching the perimeter of the president's secretariat during the week-long protests.
IMAGE: Socialist Youth Union members dressed as symbols of the Ceylon Petroleum Corporation (CEYPETCO) shout slogans against Gota.
IMAGE: A child waiting to buy kerosene with his mother plays with cans at a fuel station in Colombo.
IMAGE: A long queue in Colombo to buy kerosene.
Photographs curated by Manisha Kotian/Rediff.com
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
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