Sri Lanka, the National People's Power and women in politics – Southasia Weekly #39
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Sri Lanka, the National People's Power and women in politics – Southasia Weekly #39

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This week at Himal

This week, Rajni Gamage and Harindra B Dassanayake write that the National People's Power, the victors of Sri Lanka's presidential election, prioritised women's political inclusion and appointed Harini Amarasuriya as prime minister. But much more needs to be done to achieve lasting, structural change, and the real test will be how the NPP prioritises gender equality after the general elections on 14 November.

For our next Podcast of the Week, host of the Southasia Review of Books podcast Shwetha Srikanthan chats with journalists Saba Imtiaz and Tooba Masood-Khan about their new book “Society Girl: A Tale of Sex, Lies, and Scandal”.

You have two days left to catch 'Taala te Kunjee' (Lock and Key), this month's film for Screen Southasia! Sign up here to receive the screening link.

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Sri Lanka, the National People's Power and women in politics – Southasia Weekly #39
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Sri Lanka, the National People's Power and women in politics – Southasia Weekly #39
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Sri Lanka, the National People's Power and women in politics – Southasia Weekly #39
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This week in Southasia

Adani Group halves power supply to Bangladesh, prompting fresh scrutiny on power deal

After prolonged negotiations, the Adani Group lifted a strict deadline on power supply repayments that led to the Indian conglomerate cutting power supply to Bangladesh. Bangladesh’s government hastily made partial payments towards total dues worth over USD 800 million, including opening a new credit line of USD 170 million. For the past year, Bangladesh has paid roughly a quarter of its monthly bill, leading to accumulating debt. Adani said they faced challenges importing coal necessary for power generation and imposed a deadline of 7 November to make full payment, cutting their power supply to Bangladesh by half when the country failed to make the deadline.


Bangladesh has been struggling to make payments due to shortages in foreign currency reserves. The mass protests that led to the ouster of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina in August worsened the situation. Adani’s power deal with Bangladesh, signed under Hasina’s administration, is now being reassessed alongside ten other deals, after criticism that the agreement was “lopsided”, forcing Bangladesh to pay higher prices for lower quality coal. But the deal is unlikely to be set aside as the agreement supplies ten percent of Bangladesh’s power, and a legal challenge would likely be unsuccessful. Bangladesh’s interim government has said that they can repay outstanding dues within the next few months with loans from the International Monetary Fund and Asian Development Bank.

Elsewhere in Southasia 📡

Only in Southasia

In Sri Lanka, astrologers have always been held in high regard, with astrological predictions around elections holding some weight (so much so that this election cycle in Sri Lanka, few wanted to stick their necks out). Happily, the US Presidential election presented no such quandaries. A leading daily newspaper went to the extent of publishing an entire column from astrologer Gehan Cooray in which he confidently predicted a Kamala Harris victory. Cooray said he predicted that Harris would replace Biden on the Democratic ticket in June, and said that when he drew Trump's tarot cards, it foretold 'dismal defeat and crushing chagrin', whereas Harris' card spread spoke of a 'luminous victory'. Cooray added that he had voted for Jill Stein and the Green Party this year, making his prediction unbiased. Unfortunately, Cooray just didn't play his cards right.  

@DailyMirror
@DailyMirror

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From the archive

This week, as the United States of America elected Donald Trump as president, Ambreen Agha's review of Suketu Mehta's book This Land is Our Land: An Immigrant's Manifesto is worth revisiting. Agha writes that leaders like Donald Trump have capitalised on fear of the 'other' to consolidate power. This Land is Our Land addresses several myths about migrants and defends the right to migrate, using the personal histories of migrants to do so. 

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