Sri Lanka Under Enormous Pressure from Both India and China—NPP.

Mr. Wasantha Samarasinghe, a member of the National Executive Board, of the NPP has stated at its party meeting conducted in the district of Anuradhapura that Sri Lanka is currently being subjected to enormous pressures and being pushed around by the superpowers of India and China.

According to him, President Wickramasinghe met with the Eastern province development committee and pledged that India will assist in the development of the eastern province in a manner comparable to that of the Mahaweli project. He expressed doubt as to why India would be so invested in Sri Lanka’s development. It is up to us to consider how to be concerned with our development and well-being, and we do not need India’s involvement in this process.

Our country belongs to us and our children, and we will be devoted to caring for and safeguarding its future.

However, it must be emphasized that the president’s claim that he has the right to sell portions of our country to foreign nations based solely on his personal desires and preferences is completely untenable.

In 2017, they leased the port of Hambanthota to the Chinese for 99 years. Now, in 2023, nearly seven years had elapsed; what had become of the port? The Chinese, however, had not purchased a single crane for the port. Had they provided employment opportunities for the region’s scattered population? No, they had not.

In fact government has given well over 3000 acres of land for the Chinese under the guarantees that it will be developed into location of industries that will be providing employment for the large number of Sri Lankans but so far nothing had happened in fact the Chinese hasn’t produced a single opportunity of employment for Sri Lanka nor they have established any factories to provide employment opportunities for Sri Lankans.

The Sri Lankan nation had become a sort of projectile, which other nations, particularly China and India, have been able to toss around. These two countries are subjecting Sri Lanka to a multitude of measures in order to satisfy their own demands, with little regard for the Sri Lankan people.

And again, on behalf of the NPP, I would like to reiterate that we, the Sri Lankan people, do not tolerate the direction Wickramasinghe and the government are taking Sri Lanka, and that if the nation’s sovereignty were to be compromised, we will fight for our rights regardless of the restrictions imposed upon us.