Sri Lanka’s President Gotabaya Rajapaksa declared an Emergency on April 1 as thousands of people came out on the streets to protest the crippling power cuts and shortages of essential commodities caused by the country’s economic meltdown. This is the second time within a year that Rajapaksa has resorted to this measure — he declared an Emergency on August 30 last year to deal with hoarding of essential commodities when the economic crisis had begun to manifest itself in all its severity, but lifted it within a few weeks. In this episode of the Editorial, our managing Editor Mr Sujit Nair speaks to Economnist Prof. Dr Arun Kumar to understand the reasons behind Sri Lanka's ongoing crisis? Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices