Elections in September are seen as 3-way contest between Ranil Wickremesinghe, Sajith Premadasa & Anura Dissanayake, but entry of Mahinda Rajapaksa's son could throw spanner in works.
After mass protests over surging prices and shortages of food & fuel, Rajapaksa announced he will resign on 13 July, PM Wickremesinghe has announced intent to resign too.
Basil reportedly tried to take a flight out of the country amid the ongoing economic crisis but airport officials refused to let him leave following protests by passengers.
New Delhi must be watchful but not necessarily too concerned about China angle in Sri Lanka. Colombo has the rationale, reason and space for engaging both.
If there is bad blood between the CEC and the Opposition leaders, it will shake the people’s faith in election results. It’s the worst thing that could happen to Indian democracy.
Indian toymakers are now exploring new markets, but they want govt to negotiate a trade deal with US soon, introduce incentives and subsidies to make the industry more competitive.
The deal, believed to be paid for by a third nation, will give the Sudanese Armed Forces access to light attack aircraft, engines, armoured fighting vehicles & unmanned aerial vehicles.
Now that both IAF and PAF have made formal claims of having shot down the other’s aircraft in the 87-hour war in May, we can ask a larger question: do such numbers really matter?
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