New Delhi:The prominence of India and China in South Asian politics has been once again highlighted as Beijing is relentlessly promoting the acts of anti-India rhetoric in the Maldives which could alter the dynamic of geopolitics in the region.
Beijing's closeness with leaders who adhere to anti-India policy and the acquittal of former president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom last November in a corruption case has only intensified the twitchiness. Yameen continues to lead anti-India protests by taking his campaign away from the urban capital of Malé to sparsely populated islands wearing red t-shirts with 'India Out' printed in bold letters on them.
Consequently, President Ibrahim Solih and his allies took no time to condemn the protests led by Yameen. The ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) is also coming up with a new bill titled 'The Bill To Stop All Actions That Could Negatively Affect Relations Established By The Maldives With Foreign Countries'. The bill aims to declare Yameen's anti-India campaign illegal and target the 'India Out' campaign. It could be submitted when the legislative body will reconvene in February.
In an exclusive interview with ETV Bharat, Ambassador J.K. Tripathi, IFS (Retd.) highlighted that China has been persistently attempting such tactics in Nepal, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, and therefore, it does not seem surprising that this anti-India campaign is spearheaded by Yameen whose proximity with China's President XI Jinping has never been a secret.
The ongoing development raises concerns about the security of Indians in the Maldives. As per the estimates, there are around 26,000 Indians working in the region apart from accounting for 7-8% of Indian tourists that the region receives. Meanwhile, the strategic significance of the Maldives in the Indian Ocean ensures uninterrupted energy supplies to India, China, and Japan.
Tripathi said that being at a very strategic location, Beijing eyes to take control over the trade route of the Strait of Malacca by establishing friendly ties with anti-Indian elements in the Maldives and Sri Lanka. He added that China's dominance and its expansionism policy could also be analyzed in the context of Malaysia and Indonesia which have complained of Beijing's aggressive incursions into its waters.
At the epitome of these tensions is the benign presence of Indian forces who are stationed for ready-to-use helicopter/Dornier aircraft service in medical and natural disaster emergencies, a reiteration of New Delhi's 'Neighbourhood First Policy'. Ambassador Tripathi emphasized that when the Yameen government came into power in 2013, India had gifted three helicopters to the Maldives for ocean search-and-rescue operations, maritime weather surveillance, airlifting patients between islands, and humanitarian purposes. The Yameen government in 2016, however, had asked India to take back these gifted helicopters and refused to extend the terms of the agreement that would extend their stay and use in the country. This is a classic display of Yameen's anti-India rhetoric.
The former ambassador said that later when Yameen's government lost the mandate in 2018 after which Ibrahim Mohamed Solih assumed office, the latter immediately extended the stay and use of these choppers in the country, reiterating his pro-Indian policy.
To mention, in a bomb attack on May 6, former Maldivian president Mohamed Nasheed was critically injured, as were a few others. The horrific incident led to reports suggesting that various networks including AlQaeda, Islamic State, and other Pakistani-based jihadist outfits had started to establish their bases on the pretext of helping the Maldives post-2004 tsunami and since then the unimaginable surge in the terror cases in the country could be a direct threat to New Delhi's national security.
To this, Ambassador Tripathi staunchly replied that such cases are always a threat to India's interests and security and largely to the security of the whole region. In an email to the Indian High Commission in the Maldives, ETV Bharat asked for an update on the security status of the Indians living in the archipelago amid a huge anti-India campaign in the island state. ETV Bharat still awaits a response to the email. The story will be updated as and when it comes.
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