Sri Lankan economic crisis is a lesson for India; Centre needs to change policy: Kerala FM

The economic crisis in neighbouring Sri Lanka is a result of its aggressive globalisation policy and it is a lesson for India which is also following the similar policy, Kerala Finance Minister K N Balagopal said on Tuesday.

Urging the central government to take measures to fix the problems in the Indian economy, Balagopal, who has been critical of various policies of the BJP-led central government, said the Centre was moving into a “danger zone” as more than half of the total Union budget comes from borrowing and not much investments are being made in productive sectors.

The finance minister, part of the Left Democratic Front which swept to power for the second straight term last year, also dismissed allegations that the ambitious semi-high speed rail project, SilverLine, could adversely impact Keralas economy. The project is at the centre of an escalating political controversy with Opposition parties protesting against it.

Blaming the blind following of globalisation policy for the crisis in Sri Lanka, Balagopal said the governments there focused fully on the foreign income generating sectors like tourism and ignored the primary sectors like agriculture resulting the heavy fall of economy during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“People are fleeing the island nation not because of war or internal conflict but due to abject poverty. The governments there completely ignored the sectors like food production and gave their full attention in generating foreign money through the sectors like tourism. But the COVID-19 pandemic caused the collapse of the tourism sector pushing the country into a severe crisis,” the minister told

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