INDIA IS ‘DISTURBED’ AFTER MALDIVES SOS
Former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed has requested India to intervene in the ongoing political crisis in the archipelago triggered by an embattled President Abdulla Yameen, who has declared an emergency and arrested the top judges.
Within hours of the SOS, the External Affairs issued its first official statement on the situation to say that “we are disturbed.”
The MEA has every reason to be concerned: President Yameen has been close to China. Incidentally, the tiny nation is located near key shipping lanes; the Maldives has assumed even greater importance after China embarked on its so-called "String of Pearls" strategy to build a network of ports in the Indian Ocean region, ostensibly to encircle India.
“We are disturbed by the declaration of a State of Emergency in the Maldives following the refusal of the Yameen Government to abide by the unanimous ruling of the full bench of the Supreme Court on 1 February, and also by the suspension of Constitutional rights of the people of Maldives,” the MEA said in a statement on Tuesday evening.
According to sources, the exiled former president Nasheed has sought India's military intervention in Maldives to resolve the ongoing political crisis. "We must remove Yameen from power. The people of the Maldives have a legitimate request to world governments, especially to India and the United States", said Nasheed, who is currently in Sri Lanka.
He also asked the US to ensure that all American financial institutions clamp down on the transactions of Yameen regime.
Chief Justice Abdulla Saeed and another judge, Ali Hameed, were arrested hours after President Yameen declared a state of emergency on Monday. In a televised address to the nation on Tuesday, President Yameen accused the judges of plotting to overthrow him. "I had to declare a national emergency because there was no other way to investigate these judges," Yameen said. "We had to find out how thick the plot or the coup was," he said, adding that the chief justice was trying to illegally impeach him and sack the attorney general.