Why Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu’s Hyperbolic ‘Anti-India’ Campaign Needs a Reality Check
1 year, 1 month ago

Why Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu’s Hyperbolic ‘Anti-India’ Campaign Needs a Reality Check

News 18  

In Malé, a new leadership has taken the reins of the scenic and strategically crucial Maldivian archipelago whose vast jurisdiction of Indian Ocean waters has put it at the centre of a great power play between India and China. Union Minister for Earth Sciences Kiren Rijiju represented India in place of Prime Minister Narendra Modi who was invited to the swearing-in ceremony of President Mohamed Muizzu in Maldives. While this is a drastic downgrading of ties in stark contrast with PM Modi’s presence in 2018 visit to Solih’s swearing-in, it is also an apt message to Muizzu, whose indifference to India’s security concerns was subtly addressed by the presence of Rijiju, a well-known Indian minister from the state of Arunachal Pradesh— a region that China claims as part of southern Tibet, and therefore its own, and even renamed 11 locations in April this year despite zero physical or political footprint in the Indian state. Riding on the back of a hyperbolic ‘India Out’ campaign, Mohamed Muizzu dethroned Ibrahim Solih, a close friend of India, as President of the island nation, raising alarm in New Delhi. Muizzu’s campaign fanned anti-India sentiments across the island nation, portraying Indian aid— including two Dhruv helicopters and one Dornier maritime surveillance aircraft gifted by India and operated by Indian personnel mostly for the purpose of search and rescue operations, curbing illegal fishing and smuggling, and surveillance— as Indian military presence and an affront to the nation’s sovereignty.

History of this topic

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