'Without doubt, General Bajwa has deliberately snubbed India.' 'But why did he do that?' 'The Male leadership is simply fed up with Indian interference,' says Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
In unusual comments at the SAARC forum, Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed on Wednesday talked about strained relations between India and Pakistan, saying that he hoped that tomorrow's meeting between the two countries' Prime Ministers will lead to resolution of their differences.
Democracy in Maldives is at the crossroads. There is need for the international community to put pressure on the incumbent regime in the country, so that it is not able to disrupt elections once again, and the democracy in Maldives could be saved from sinking, says Anand Kumar.
In a significant decision, which may escalate the political turmoil in Maldives, the country's supreme court on Tuesday declared as null and void the first round of presidential polls in which former president Mohammed Nasheed emerged as the winner.
Sri Lanka declared a state of emergency on Wednesday as angry protesters stormed the prime minister's office in Colombo, hours after president Gotabaya Rajapksa fled to the Maldives on a military jet, amid the country's worst economic crisis in decades.
India on Friday rejected Maldivian charge that it was undermining its democratic institutions, saying it has no intention to interfere in its internal matters even as former President Mohamed Nasheed remained holed up in Indian mission in Male for the third day in a row amid efforts to resolve the situation.
Nasheed's MDP is currently the largest political party in Maldives, but in the presidential elections it will have to find some allies to take his support to more than 50 per cent since the election is based on the run-off system, says Shubha Singh
With no signs of resolution to the situation arising out of former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed taking refuge in the Indian mission for the sixth day, India and Maldives on Monday engaged in a war of words with the former denying that its high commission was being used for holding political meetings to incite violence.
Angry over the disruption of parliament by lawmakers of Mohamed Nasheed's party, Maldives' second largest political bloc DRP has withdrawn from the all-party talks, dealing a blow to efforts to reconcile the country's fractured political atmosphere.
Angry lawmakers of former President Mohammed Nasheed's party on Thursday prevented the new President from delivering the opening address in Parliament even as protesters hit the streets clashing with police, deepening the political crisis.
'I am also concerned over Chinese ambitions in the Maldives and wider Indian Ocean,' former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed tells Rediff.com contributor Rajeev Sharma in an exclusive interview.
Ahead of the first visit by President Mohamed Waheed, Maldives on Friday hoped that India will respect its sovereignty and will not play a role in the internal politics of the country.
Nearly two months after he was ousted as Maldives' president, Mohamed Nasheed has said he will visit India next month to seek support for his efforts to hold early elections and restore a democratically-elected government in his country. 44-year-old Nasheed, who became Maldives' first democratically-elected president following multi-party polls in October 2008, had resigned on February 7 in what he claims was a coup.
Maldives on Friday affirmed that the controversy-ridden presidential polls set for Saturday will go ahead in order to avert a constitutional crisis.
The Indian government appears to have been caught napping in the Maldives on two counts, says security expert B Raman.
Former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed who is in New Delhi for the last five days trying to drum up support for his demand for establishing a popular government in Male, met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday and discussed the political situation in the Maldives and its future.
Two months after he quit as President of Maldives, Mohamed Nasheed on Thursday said India had "bungled" by not recognising the changeover as a "coup" and wants it to use "coercive" means against the new government to ensure fresh elections within this year.
Maldives' ousted President Mohammed Nasheed's MDP party has said that it was grateful to India for its "timely intervention" to help resolve the political impasse in the nation, a view shared by the new regime as well. "It has been a positive movement, a forward movement. India's role was very much important in ensuring that the political and democratic process is on," said Ibrahim Hussein Zaki, a senior MDP leader and close aide of Nasheed.
As the crisis in Maldives deepened, India on Friday sent its special envoy to Male to assess the situation in the island where former President Mohamed Nasheed was ousted in a coup. M Ganapathi, secretary (west) in the external affairs ministry left for Male with a brief to assess the situation in the Indian Ocean atoll, which has plunged into a crisis after the ouster of Nasheed. "I have sent an envoy to Maldives to assess the situation," Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said.
Ousted Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed has said he will be approaching the country's Supreme Court for justice following a coup, which he claims was engineered by then Vice President Dr Mohammed Waheed Hassan.
Maldives Supreme Court has ordered the suspension of the run-off presidential re-vote scheduled for Sunday, a day after former president Mohammed Nasheed led the first round but failed to clinch an outright majority.
"As we continued with (preparation for) voting, the Maldives Police Services have said no document relating to the election can leave the commission's offices, stopping the election," said a statement issued by the Election Commission.
This is Modi's first visit to the Maldives as prime minister. The last visit by an Indian Prime Minister to the Indian Ocean island nation was by Manmohan Singh in 2011.
Describing climate change as one of the most serious security challenges the world is going to face, Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed, on Friday called for urgent United Nations reforms and making India and Brazil as permanent members of the Security Council.
In the face of pressure from the world community, Mohamed Waheed has stepped down as president of the Maldives on the eve of the second round of the country's controversy-ridden presidential polls.
A horse-shoe shaped table has been immersed in the blue waters off the Girifushi island, about 35 nautical miles from the capital, Male, where President Mohamed Nasheed will preside over his cabinet.
"The Prime Minister thanked the Prime Minister of Pakistan for his telephone call and greetings," MEA said.
President Yameen declared the emergency on February 5 after the Supreme Court ordered the release of a group of opposition leaders, who had been convicted in widely criticised trials. Among them was exiled ex-President Mohamed Nasheed. The court said his 2015 trial had been unconstitutional.
Opposition leaders across the Maldives are being rounded up and placed under detention as draconian measures are being put in place by President Abdulla Yameen.
'Of course, Maldives is chicken feed for the Indian armed forces. And an intervention in the Maldives may serve the purpose of creating jingoism in an election year.' 'But from the foreign policy perspective, any such move will be a flagrant violation of international law and the UN Charter,' warns Ambassador M K Bhadrakumar.
Voting was held in Maldives on Saturday for the second multi-party presidential elections with long queues of people outside polling stations in this Indian Ocean archipelago, which has seen a series of unsettling political events in the last eighteen months.
A delegation of the Progressive Party of Maldives led by its presidential candidate, Abdulla Yamin Abdul Gayoom called on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday.
Indian firm skips midnight ceremony Maldives terms takeover a victory for its people.
Two years after it handed over the Male International Airport's operations to Indian infrastructure major GMR, the Maldives' state-run MACL was back at the helm on Saturday.
The political transition in Maldives shows all signs of remaining highly charged till the elections scheduled for September 7. Former president Mohamed Nasheed was produced in a Maldives court on Wednesday, ten days after he emerged from an 11-day long stay in the Indian high commission where he had sought refuge from arrest warrant issued by a local court.
The realist school of thought currently employed by Delhi, that friendships don't matter as long as national interest is taken care of, is all very well to pursue, except in this case Nasheed exemplified both friendship and national interest. After its errors of judgement on the Maldives, India's next opportunity will come only when elections are held.
Did GMR Infra get a sweet deal from former Maldivian president that turned sour as a new government came to power?
After two tumultuous sittings marred by protests by the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party, Maldives' parliament commenced its first session of the year on Monday, indicating that the new government may finally be getting on with work.
Maldives was on Wednesday suspended from the Commonwealth Ministerial Action Group -- the most powerful panel of the Commonwealth body -- following the recent developments in the country including the ousting of its democratically-elected president Mohamed Nasheed.
Maldives' new regime has appointed a commission to probe allegations of coup against it following President Mohammed Nasheed's ouster, Male's envoy said on Wednesday, while accusing the toppled leader's Maldivian Democratic Party of reneging on an India-brokered deal to resolve the political impasse.
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