External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Tuesday said Sri Lanka is facing “a very serious crisis” that makes India naturally worried. He made the remark during an all-party meeting held in Delhi on the unfolding situation in the island nation and dismissed suggestions about such a situation arising in India.
Jaishankar and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Prahlad Joshi were among the senior members of the government at the briefing, which was also attended by opposition leaders such as – Congress leaders P Chidambaram and Manickam Tagore, NCP’s Sharad Pawar and TR Baalu and MM Abdulla of the DMK.
“The reason we took the initiative to request you all to join an all-party meeting was…this is a very serious crisis and what we are seeing in Sri Lanka is in many ways an unprecedented situation,” Jaishankar, who made the initial remarks, said, adding, “It is a matter which pertains to a very close neighbor and given the near proximity, we naturally worry about the consequences, the spillover it has for us.”
Jaishankar also said there have seen some “misinformed comparisons” in the context of crisis-hit Sri Lanka wherein some people have asked whether “can such a situation happen in India”.
Others who attended the meeting were – AIADMK’s M Thambidurai, Saugata Ray from TMC, Farooq Abdullah from National Conference, AAP’s Sanjay Singh, TRS leader Keshava Rao, BSP’s Ritesh Pandey, Vijayasai Reddy from YSR Congress and MDMK’s Vaiko.
