State of emergency declared in Sri Lanka ahead of July 20 presidential election
Colombo, Jul 18 (PTI) Sri Lanka's acting president Ranil Wickremesinghe on Monday declared a state of emergency in the country with immediate effect, ahead of the July 20 election for the post of the president which fell vacant after Gotabaya Rajapaksa's resignation following the popular public uprising against him.
The government gazette dated July 17 imposing a state of emergency in the troubled nation was issued on Monday morning.
The 225-member Parliament is expected to elect the new president on July 20.
The president is empowered to impose emergency regulations in part 2 of the public security ordinance which says (a) if the president is of the opinion that the police are inadequate to deal with a situation he may gazette an order calling out the armed forces to maintain public order .
This means that security forces gain the power to search, arrest, seize and remove weapons and explosives, and enter and search premises or persons.
The order comes as Parliament is set to accept on Tuesday the nominations for the post of president, which fell vacant last week after Rajapaksa fled the country and later resigned.
Rajapaksa is currently in Singapore.
At least four candidates, including Wickremesinghe, are in the race to become the new president who will serve the remaining tenure of Rajapaksa till November 2024.
The voting in parliament is to take place on Wednesday.
On Sunday, the acting president's office said he had ordered the police to keep track of those who threaten and influence parliamentarians in Wednesday's vote.
Besides Wickremesinghe and main Opposition leader Sajith Premadasa, Marxist Janatha Vimukthi Peramuna (JVP) leader Anura Kumara Dissanayake and Dullas Alahapperuma, a breakaway SLPP candidate, are the other two leaders who have so far announced their candidacy to contest the vote in Parliament.
The ruling SLPP has officially announced its backing for Wickremesinghe.
Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe was sworn in as acting President on Friday after the Speaker accepted Rajapaksa's resignation letter sent from Singapore.
The 73-year-old politician is currently the frontrunner though his United National Party (UNP) was routed in the 2020 parliamentary election.
Sri Lanka is facing its worst economic crisis in seven decades, with a severe foreign exchange shortage hampering the import of essentials including food, fuel and medicines.
The economic crisis also sparked a political crisis in the country after a popular uprising against the government.
The island nation off the tip of southeast India needs about USD 5 billion in the next six months to cover basic necessities for its 22 million people, who have been struggling with long queues, worsening shortages and power cuts.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
No Gas, No Food, World Hungry
Imagine waking up one morning and finding that the price of wheat flour, rice, and milk has doubled overnight. Your grocery bag costs twice as much. Farmers in your village cannot afford fertiliser. The government is scrambling. This is not a nightmare. This is exactly what the Iran war could trigger — and it starts with something most of us never think about: natural gas.
How Does Gas Connect to Your Food?
There is a process called the Haber-Bosch process — a scientific method that mixes nitrogen from air with hydrogen from natural gas to create ammonia. Ammonia is then turned into urea, which is the fertiliser that farmers spray on wheat, rice, and maize fields. Simply put — no natural gas, no fertiliser. No fertiliser, no food.
Around 80% of the cost of making fertiliser comes from natural gas. So when gas supply gets disrupted even for a few weeks, fertiliser factories slow down or completely shut. Farmers get less fertiliser. Crops grow weaker. Harvests fall. And your plate gets emptier.
The Strait of Hormuz — A Small Passage, Giant Problem
There is a narrow sea passage called the Strait of Hormuz, located between Iran and the Arabian Peninsula. Nearly 20% of the world's LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) and 30% of global fertiliser exports pass through this tiny corridor every single day.
Major countries like Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE export fertilisers — urea and ammonia — through this route to nations across Asia, Africa, and Europe. Now, with Iran's military threatening this passage, ships are scared to pass. Fertiliser is stuck inside the Persian Gulf. The world outside is waiting — and waiting costs lives.
Worst Timing in Farming History
This war has arrived at the worst possible moment for global agriculture. Right now, farmers across the Northern Hemisphere — in USA, Canada, Europe, China, India, Russia — are preparing for the spring planting season. This is the peak time when demand for nitrogen fertiliser is at its absolute highest.
Unlike oil, which many countries store in emergency reserves, no country in the world has a strategic fertiliser reserve. If shipments are delayed even by four to six weeks, farmers will use less fertiliser and the autumn harvest will permanently fall. You cannot redo a planting season. Once that window closes, it is gone.
Your Chicken, Milk and Eggs Are Also at Risk
Many people think a food crisis only affects vegetarians. That is wrong. When fertiliser shortages reduce grain production, the price of animal feed — corn and soybean — shoots up. Livestock farmers operate on very thin profits. When feed prices rise sharply, the cost of chicken, pork, beef, milk, and eggs rises with it. A fertiliser shortage can become a full dairy and meat crisis within just a few months.
India's Mungaru Season Is in Serious Danger
For India, this situation is deeply personal — and for Karnataka and South India, it hits even closer to home. India sources nearly 60% of its total LNG imports from Middle East countries — with Qatar alone supplying over 42% and UAE adding another 11%. This makes India the most Middle East-dependent LNG buyer in the entire world.
If India's fertiliser plants cannot get affordable natural gas, domestic urea production will fall sharply — exactly before the Mungaru planting season. Mungaru is what Karnataka and South Indian farmers lovingly call the Kharif (Mungaru) season — the monsoon-driven planting window arriving around June, when farmers sow rice, ragi, sugarcane, and maize riding the southwest rains. This single season produces over half of India's total food grain. Miss this window, and there is no second chance until next year.
The government will be forced to spend thousands of crores extra on fertiliser subsidies. Every family — from a rice farmer in Mandya to a vegetable buyer in Bengaluru — will feel this burden.
Food in Cold Storage Is Also at Risk
Even food that is grown successfully may not reach your kitchen. Our food system runs on a massive cold chain — refrigerated trucks, frozen warehouses, temperature-controlled ships. As LNG prices surge, running these refrigeration systems becomes extremely expensive. More food spoils before reaching the market. Less supply means higher prices.
Countries Will Hoard, the Poor Will Starve
When prices rise and harvests fall, countries panic and stop food exports to protect themselves — exactly as happened during the 2022 Ukraine war. Wheat, rice, and sugar exports get banned overnight. Nations that depend on food imports — especially in Africa and South Asia — face severe shortages, hunger, and social unrest.
One war. One strait. One gas shortage. And the entire world goes hungry.
(Girish Linganna is an award-winning science communicator and a Defence, Aerospace & Geopolitical Analyst. He is the Managing Director of ADD Engineering Components India Pvt. Ltd., a subsidiary of ADD Engineering GmbH, Germany.)
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect the views, policies, or position of the publication, its editors, or its management. The publication is not responsible for the accuracy of any information, statements, or opinions presented in this piece.
