GROWTH OF A GAMA

A pictorial tour on the evolution of Go Gota Gama, the tented village of anti government protests which has sprung up near the presidential secretariat in Colombo

- BHANU PRAKASH CHANDRA

The behaviour of motorists in Sri Lanka is completely different from what it is in India. Sri Lankans follow traffic rules, do not honk unnecessarily and instances of road rage are rare. In Colombo, adding to the peace and quiet of the city is its exceptional cleanliness. The streets are tidy, there is no litter and open spaces like the Galle Face are carpeted with lawns. Sri Lankans, especially the Sinhalese citizens, used to credit President Gotabaya Rajapaksa for the beautification of Colombo—a task he executed a few years ago as secretary of urban development in his brother Mahinda’s government.

Unfortunately for the Rajapaksas, a wind of change is blowing across Sri Lanka. The tranquil beachfront are being shaken by the deafening honking as Sri Lankans pour out their ire against Gotabaya for “ruining the country’s economy with his wrong policies”. They also blame the Rajapaksa clan for “its nepotism and corruption”. A protest site outside the president’s office has grown from being the venue for occasional street-side agitations to a tented village called Go Gota Gama (gama means village in Sinhala language). Protesters take pictures at the village and upload those on social media with the hashtag #gogotahome, persuading more urban Sri Lankans to join them in a bid to pressure the president to resign. The village now looks like a mix of the farmers’ protest site on the Singhu border in Delhi and the 2011 Occupy Wall Street protests in New York.