Sri Lanka is going to celebrate its 75th Independence Day on 4th February. Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan will represent India at Sri Lankas 75th Independence Day celebrations to be held in Sri Lanka on Saturday and is going to hold bilateral talks with President Ranil Wickremesinghe and Foreign Minister Ali Sabri.Along with Union Minister Muraleedharan, several other foreign VIPs, including Head of the Commonwealth Patricia Scotland, are scheduled to attend the main event in Sri Lankas capital Colombo. Security has been beefed up in the capital with armed troops manning all areas of Colombo and the most popular junctions. Muraleedharans two-day visit to Sri Lanka is a reflection of deepening bilateral ties between the two countries at a time when the island nation is reeling from an economic crisis. Last month, Sri Lanka thanked India for helping the country with a 3.9 billion US Dollar line of credit last year and for the assurances given by New Delhi to the International Monetory Fund to restructure the debt.Sri Lanka, which is trying to secure a 2.9 billion US dollar bridge loan from the IMF, was in talks to get financial assurances from its major creditors also, which are China, Japan and India, which would allow Colombo to get the bailout package. Notably, during the year 2022, Sri Lanka faced its worst economic crisis since independence, leading to a political crisis leading to months-long public protests.The Sri Lankan opposition parties have been criticizing the government for the Independence day celebrations. They termed the 200 million rupees event as an extravagance amid the current economic crisis.Ahead of celebrations, a radical students union has called for a day of protest. A one day sit-in protest is to be staged from today at the Maradana junction in central Colombo to protest against the celebrations.
