Over a thousand people from the Sri Lankan diaspora community in the United Kingdom gathered at Parliament Square in Westminister and protested against Sri Lanka’s ruling Rajapaksa family, demanding their resignation. Anger against Rajapaksas is growing both at home and abroad after the country plunged into a severe economic crisis.  

Waving the Sri Lankan flag and chanting the slogan “Gota Go Gama” ( a slogan asking President Gotabaya Rajapaksa to quit), Sri Lankans across all ethnic groups and communities traveled from various parts of the United Kingdom to central London to stage the protest, reported The Morning.

The protest, organized along similar lines of the ‘Gota Go Gama’ protest in Colombo’s iconic Galle Face, was organized as a show of solidarity with Sri Lankans back home, who are struggling from an acute shortage of food, fuel, and medicines as the country runs out of foreign exchange reserves.

Already reeling under a heavy debt burden, the island country’s economic situation worsened after the pandemic and a slowdown in the tourism industry, which was one of its top foreign exchange sources. Last month, the government announced a premature default on its external debt, totaling around $51 billion, after consultation with the officials of the International Monetary Fund (IMF).

The protests at Galle Face in front of Sri Lanka’s sea-facing Presidential Secretariat has entered the third week now, with unceasing demand for the resignations of President Gotabaya Rajapaksa and Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapaksa. None of them have showed yet any willingness to cede power.

Despite announcing its in-principle position in the formation of an interim government, President Rajapaksa is yet to take any significant measure to boost public confidence and ease the political deadlock. 

(SAM)