Sri Lanka has just inked a deal that looks harmless on paper: an HVDC interconnection with India, meant to “enable electricity trade” and “ensure energy security.” It’s being paraded as a regional success story, a step toward prosperity.
But let me be clear this is not energy diplomacy. It is strategic dependency, disguised as development.
When a sovereign nation allows a foreign power to link directly into its electricity grid, it is not just importing electricity, it is exporting control.
Power in, Pressure Out
India has ambitions. And Sri Lanka, yet again, has offered itself as a conduit. With this HVDC line, we are inviting Indian influence into the very circuitry of our national survival. This is not a simple exchange of megawatts. It is a political power line, dressed up in cables and contracts.
Tomorrow, if India doesn’t like a policy we pass, a port we lease, or a partner we choose, they won’t need troops or sanctions. They can flick a switch.
Who Gave You This Mandate?
Was this debated in Parliament? Were people consulted? Was any cost-benefit analysis presented to the nation?
No.
Like many of the MoUs signed this year, this was done quietly, swiftly, and without accountability. And it’s part of a pattern: first digital identity integration, now energy dependency. Slowly, silently, Sri Lanka is being rewired,
from a sovereign state into a satellite node.
The National Grid Isn’t Just Infrastructure. It’s Identity.
Energy is not just about electricity. It’s about national resilience. About independence. About the ability to stand tall when others want you on your knees.
This HVDC agreement, if fully implemented, puts our future at risk. Because it connects more than cables,
it connects our decisions to theirs. And once the current flows, cutting it off won’t be so easy.
Sri Lanka must decide now,
do we want light at the cost of liberty? Or are we ready to power our own future, on our own terms?
