Hi, This is Hot Mic and I’m Nidhi Razdan.

India is witnessing a full-blown crisis in its neighbourhood. Pakistan is having a political meltdown and Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis, which is now threatening its political stability as well. The country’s elite political dynasty, the Rajapaksas are staring at deep-seated anger and resentment where people simply want them out and are not afraid to take to the streets for it. Is this the end of the road for the Rajapaksas?

The situation in Sri Lanka is dire. For weeks now, people have been facing severe food and fuel shortages. There have been long blackouts, often lasting for several hours a day. The army has been guarding petrol pumps to ensure there is no violence. People have defied emergency and curfew orders to come out onto the streets in protest. Students are leading these protests now with many thousands marching in the rain earlier this week to the residence of Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. Their demand is the resignation of the Prime Minister and the President.

On Sunday, faced with spiralling protests, the entire 26-member cabinet was asked to resign. But President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and the Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa have refused to step down. And people aren’t satisfied with that solution. It’s a crisis that has been blamed largely on their mismanagement of the country’s economy.

The island nation depends on imports for all its essentials, from food to medicines to cement and paper. But it does not have enough foreign exchange reserves to make these purchases. It has been a stunning fall from grace for the Rajapaksas. It was only two years ago that the family had a huge wave of popular sentiment with them.

In 2020, Mahinda Rajapaksa won elections to become Prime Minister while his brother Gotabaya was President. Last year, another sibling, Basil, was appointed Finance Minister. The family’s rule, therefore, was complete. But how the tables have turned today. Protesters are out on the streets doing the unthinkable, screaming “Gota go home.” By all accounts, these are unprecedented spontaneous protests with no specific leader or central figure to guide them. It’s essentially young people who fuel these street demonstrations with the help of social media.

The cult status of the family that once existed has evaporated. In parliament too, the government has lost its majority with more than 40 MPs walking out of the ruling coalition. The government is now in a minority. The Rajapaksas are nine siblings and Gotabaya is the fifth among them. They are a political family from Sri Lanka’s Buddhist-dominated south. Gotabaya Rajapaksa joined the military in 1971 and took part in operations against the LTTE. He then retired and moved to the United States, returning to the country in 2005 where he joined Mahinda’s government as Defence Secretary.

Here, he was in-charge when the Civil War came to a brutal end, a war that saw up to one lakh people dead. He was accused of human rights violations during his tenure though the accusations never held up legally. Riding a nationalist wave in the wake of deadly terror attacks, Gotabaya swept to power as President in late 2019 and months later, the Rajapaksa-led political party crushed the opposition in parliamentary elections, helping his brother Mahinda become Prime Minister.

Gotabaya then strengthened his hold on power through what is called the 20th Amendment. It gives the President extraordinary powers to appoint ministers, bureaucrats and even judges at his will and pleasure. Sri Lanka has had a troubled history with its finances and debt. Its expenses have far exceeded its income, which is the main problem today. Tax cuts enacted by Gotabaya in 2019 made things even worse, along with the pandemic, which pretty much killed the tourism industry. The President’s reluctance to take help from external agencies like the International Monetary Fund or the IMF, despite appeals from experts only made things worse. Now that the situation is desperately bad, Sri Lanka has turned to the IMF for help. While acknowledging that people are struggling with the rising prices and shortages of essentials, Gotabaya, however, has refused to take responsibility, saying this is not a crisis that he created. So far, the protests in Sri Lanka have been largely peaceful, but there is a very real possibility they could turn violent. The Rajapaksa ancestral home was also surrounded by protesters. For the island nation, this crisis could be a defining moment for its future.