Sri Lanka is currently in the midst of an economic and political crisis the likes of which the island nation has not witnessed in the years since gaining independence in 1948. Under pressure from protesting Sri Lankans across the country, Prime Minister Mahinda Rajapakse recently resigned and went into hiding. His brother the President - Gotabaya Rajapakse - just appointed career politician Ranil Wickremesinghe as the new Prime Minister who was immediately questioned as to whether he has the moral and political mandate to help run a country that didn’t elect him. His response - some would say justification - was to invoke Churchill having experienced the same fate when he became Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in 1940.
The Versus History team discuss the legitimacy of this parallel and whether it has any historical merit. Meanwhile, we at Versus History wish the people of Sri Lanka the very best in the most awful of circumstances.
