Setback to Indian efforts as Nasheed is arrested

Former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed was arrested in Male on Tuesday, a development seen as a serious setback to India’s efforts to ensure the political imbroglio in the archipelago settles down in the run-up to the presidential polls there in early September.

New Delhi reacted in a cautious and measured manner. In a statement issued on Tuesday evening it said that “India expects due process and the rule of law would be followed.”

It urged “all concerned to exercise caution and restraint and not to resort to any violence or extraconstitutional means and steps which would weaken the democratic system” while stating that it is monitoring the situation.

A similar response came from the US embassy in Male which said it was “increasingly concerned about ongoing events in Male.” Asking that Mr Nasheed “must be accorded due process under the law regarding his pending court cases,” it urged that the presidential elections “be free, fair, credible, transparent and inclusive.”

Mr Nasheed’s arrest comes just 10 days after an India-brokered “deal” with the Maldives govern- ment headed by President Mohamed Waheed. It was only after this that Mr Nasheed, the first elected leader of the archipelago, left the premises of the Indian high commission in Male after remaining there for 11 days.

Maldives government spokesperson Masood Imad reiterated that there had been no “deal” with India. He said that the law would run its course.

The claims were contested by the Maldivian Democratic Party’s majority leader in the country’s Majlis, Mr Ibrahim Mohamed Solih, who said that there was a deal, and that it had not worked “well enough.”