India Speak: The CPR Podcast

Episode 30: Spotlight South Asia: Sri Lanka

Episode Summary

CPR is delighted to launch a new series titled Spotlight South Asia as part of its podcast, India Speak. Hosted by Senior Fellow, Sushant Singh, this series features leading experts from India's neighborhood to make sense of the political, economic and social developments in these countries and what they mean for India. In the first episode of this series, we analyse the developments in Sri Lanka. Our guest is Dilrukshi Handunnetti, an international award winning investigative journalist and a lawyer. She has worked extensively across South Asia and her work has appeared in leading platforms like the Guardian, New York Times, Al Jazeera and Mongabay. She works closely with media rights and human rights organizations with a particular focus on gender. She is the Co-Convener of the South Asian Women in Media, Sri Lanka Chapter and functions as the Executive Director of the Colombo-based Center for Investigative Reporting. Dilrukshi and Sushant talk about the current economic situation in Sri Lanka- how and when things went wrong. They discuss the failure of institutional checks and balances and the reasons behind this. Dilrukshi also shares takeaways from the protests and talks about the widespread participation of the people of Sri Lanka. She also shares a Sri Lankan perspective on the India of today. Finally, they discuss how the decline of Sri Lanka is a tragedy for the whole of South Asia and how the country is keeping its hope alive in such a critical and challenging time.