After Nepal and Bangladesh now tiny nation Maldives defy India, Delhi left fuming
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NEW DELHI: The Indian dream of hegemony over the South Asian Nations is fast shattering and many South Asian nations have started to openly defy India, courtesy China.
Only yesterday Nepal and Bangladesh have ruled in favour of China and defying India on various accounts and now tiny island nation Maldives is next in line for India.
Maldives on Tuesday extended the State of emergence by 30 days defying a rare warning by India to refrain from doing so, opening the door to further actions by India against Yameen’s dictatorial regime.
On Tuesday afternoon, with hours to go before the present emergency expired, India asked Maldives to not extend the emergency in the country. In a statement MEA said, "It is our expectation that the Government of Maldives will not be seeking extension of the State of Emergency so that the political process in Maldives can resume with immediate effect."
The statement came after a national security parliamentary committee in Maldives parliament on Monday approved a request by the president Yameen to extend emergency by another 30 days. Yameen’s actions are a direct contravention of Maldives’ commitment to India and the international community that the emergency provision would be in place for only 15 days, starting February 5.
India is not favour of the current Maldives Regime and considers it as close to the China with whom it is competing for influence in South Asia.
According to reports from Male, only 38 MPs were present for the vote this evening, despite 43 MPs being needed for the vote to take place as required by the constitution. All 38 were from PPM, the ruling party and all of them approved the extension. To ensure the vote, Yameen even tried to officially reduce the number of members in the Majlis from 85 to 73 so his party would have a majority.
The opposition had boycotted the vote, and the debate on Monday about the state of emergency and Yameen’s extension request, to ensure the vote could not happen. But the extension was approved anyway. The emergency will end on March 22.
The MEA continued, “After the revocation of the Emergency, democratic institutions including the judiciary should be allowed to function independently and in a fair and transparent manner in accordance with the Constitution. The order issued by the Supreme Court of Maldives on 1 February 2018 should be implemented in letter and spirit. “
The emergency extension will have to be cleared by the Majlis or parliament, which was supposed to meet on Monday night but did not. The opposition MPs boycotted the parliament vote on the extension, but it was passed by the ruling MPs.
Last week, Yameen issued a cryptic statement appearing to warn India against a military intervention in the Maldives. Sources said that this came after Yameen’s office complained about Indian TV discussions on the possibility of intervening in Maldives militarily.
Yameen has leveraged his ties with China and his Sunni Islamic credentials with the likes of Saudi Arabia to overturn all democracy in Maldives. Until recently, India didn’t push the democracy card too much, recognising that other countries don’t have systems similar to India’s.
But Yameen’s repeated flouting of every known democratic rule has led India to now push for democracy in the island country, the absence of which is not only creating a repeated political crisis but also giving an opening to powers like China to gain a bigger foothold.
