India’s Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai is due to fly to the Maldives to resolve escalating political tension in the country.
The Maldives’ former Foreign Minister Ahmed Naseem welcomed the arrival of Mathi, describing him to the Wall street Journal as a “highly experienced diplomat”.
“It’s very unfortunate that India took a stance on the legitimacy of the government at such an early stage,” said Naseem told the WSJ.
India’s Special Envoy M Ganapathi also visited the Maldives last week, along with many other foreign diplomats seeking to resolve the situation.
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I hope that Mr. Mathai questions the current Indian High Commissioner for Maldives as to why he was with Yameen Abdul Gayoom while the coup was unfolding?
Is the Indian High Commissioner to Maldives to be blamed for this Indian fiasco in Maldives?
Did he convey the right information to India or was he under the influence of Yameen?
We know that the High Commissioner in 2008 was sacked because he was under the influence of Gayoom and did not convey the right information back to Delhi.
It would be a useless trip! India has already taken sides in this issue. India is with the people who removed a democratically elected president from office using the Police/army. In addition, Mr. Mulay is widely believed to be involved with the coup! Popular public support is with MDP and Nasheed. India is currently not considered a credible mediator in Maldives.
Mathai's brief is to talk to Nasheed before the rally, to explain to him the Indian approach and work out a way forward that restores stability in the Maldives. Mathai will also meet the new president Waheed, to caution him that India would not appreciate it if there was any crackdown on the Nasheed rally, or any attempt to arrest Nasheed.
Mathai, who travelled in a special flight to Male, is expected to hold discussions with all the political leaders, including Nasheed and Waheed. India lost leverage in the Maldives when it rushed to legitimize the new government of Waheed within 24 hours. Sources said, India should have expected that Nasheed, who has been an ardent activist, was unlikely to go quietly and New Delhi could have worked with both sides to achieve a political outcome.
Since the moment Nasheed declared that he had been overthrown in a coup - about 24 hours late - the ground situation took a dramatically different turn. Nasheed has made himself out to be the injured party; including hinting that there could be a Chinese angle to the current crisis. In an interview, he said the Malvidian National Defence Forces (MND) was asking him to sign a defence deal with China which he apparently resisted. This claim, which he believes puts him back in the Indian "camp", came after he expressed disappointment with New Delhi's decision to back the Waheed government.
India is conceding to China, China has no vested interests in a democracy after all they are a communist dictatorship.
The Indian Govt is going to step on a lot of political 'toes' to avoid a politi-calamity. But in a tattered democracy it is the people who have to stand up....
Toi, the main issue here is Mulay. I feel that he has been compromised by Yameen. He has past form in these kinds of things.
India is on the back foot on this. The anti coup majority is too big to be ignored. MDP may be ignored but this is no longer an MDP issue. I think where they underestimated this whole thing is that they never expected the Public to be against a coup.
Nasheed was so unpopular that they thought this would be a piece of cake.
It is not Nasheed or the MDP anymore. It is all Maldivians who love democracy against this coup.
Nasheed could be right in the MNDF deal. A lot of high ranking officers have their business including Mansoor and Farhath. Mansoor bought the patrol crafts from Sri Lanka against the advice as it is for inshore and what Maldives needed was offshore.
So a Chinese deal could be on the cards for the MNDF. Nasheed would definitely resist a Chinese deal as I know that he has in the past refused Chinese due to Indian sensitivity.