In the latest of many recent strains in India’s relations with the Maldives, the Maldivian government on Sunday (January 7) suspended three Ministers who posted “derogatory remarks” against Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The controversy erupted just a day before new President Mohamed Muizzu is scheduled to depart for China.
“Our High Commission in Maldives had strongly raised and expressed concerns about the comments made in regard to PM by certain Ministers in the Maldives Government with the Foreign Office today,” a diplomatic source told The Hindu.
The suspension followed the Maldivian Foreign Ministry saying they were aware of the “derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high-ranking individuals”. “These opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the Government of Maldives,” it said. The row erupted on social media last week when a Minister and some other leaders in the Maldives used derogatory remarks against Prime Minister Modi after he posted a video of him on a beach in Lakshadweep, with one post, subsequently deleted, calling him “a clown”. Former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed condemned the remarks saying India was “instrumental” in Maldives’ security and prosperity.
This is only the latest such irritant in relations. Earlier this month, the Maldives Cabinet decided against renewing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with India for cooperation in hydrography, coming soon after newly elected President Muizzu’s pledge to send back Indian troops currently stationed in the Indian Ocean archipelago. In this Explainer, The Hindu’s Sri Lanka and Maldives Correspondent Meera Srinivasan outlined the issues at stake and what is currently straining relations.
Abhijit Singh, Head of the Maritime Policy Initiative at the Observer Research Foundation, analysed the context behind Male’s decision not to renew its hydrography pact with India and China’s recent push to carry out surveys in the Indian Ocean Region, in this commentary for The Hindu. Meanwhile, the new Maldivian President will, starting Monday (January 8), pay a five-day visit to China until Friday (January 12), the Chinese Foreign Ministry announced, at the invitation of Chinese President Xi Jinping. He will be the first foreign head of state hosted by China in 2024, a point noted by State media. An editorial in the Global Times said “in the development of relations between China and the Maldives, there is no requirement for the Maldives to sour relations with India or any other country, without exclusivity and without involving third-party conditions…... In contrast, India tends to adopt a domineering stance toward its neighbouring countries.”
Hasina’s Return
Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday secured a record fourth straight term as her Awami League party won two-thirds of the seats in the general elections marred by sporadic violence and a boycott by the main opposition BNP and its allies, news agencies reported. “We can call Awami League [the] winner with the already available results but the final announcement will be made after the end of the counting of votes in the rest of the constituencies,” an election commission spokesman said. The 76-year-old leader won a record fourth consecutive term and fifth overall term in the one-sided election, which witnessed a low turnout. As The Hindu’s Suhasini Haidar reported earlier, the win will be a boost for Delhi-Dhaka ties, given PM Hasina’s close ties with India, but hiccups could be caused if the U.S. persists with its sanctions policy citing democratic processes in Bangladesh after the election as well, and the Indian government may have to step in. The election in Bangladesh is one of many in coming months that will test India’s diplomacy as it navigates changing domestic political equations in several countries in 2024.
Surprising Chinese Praise for PM Modi, Unsurprising Response from the Opposition
An article last week published in the Global Times, the newspaper published by the People’s Daily known for its often hawkish views including on India, garnered attention for its surprisingly not-very-negative take on the current state of affairs in India. Written by a well-known scholar on India-China relations, Zhang Jiadong, Director of the Center for South Asian Studies at the prestigious Fudan University in Shanghai, the commentary was based on his recent two visits to India during which, the author noted, he had “found that India’s domestic and foreign situation have changed tremendously compared to four years ago” when he last visited.
“India has always considered itself a world power,” he wrote. “However, it has only been less than 10 years since India shifted from multi-balancing to multi-alignment, and now it is rapidly transforming toward a strategy of becoming a pole in the multipolar world. The speed of such changes is rarely seen in the history of international relations. India is indeed a major power, and rapid changes in internal and external strategies pose challenges to both itself and the international community. It appears that a transformed, stronger, and more assertive India has become a new geopolitical factor that many countries need to consider.” The article was also later published in Mandarin and re-published across several Chinese social media accounts.
In India meanwhile, its publishing received attention from the Opposition. “The Prime Minister’s cheerleaders and drum-beaters are ecstatic on the official Chinese media’s praise for him. And why shouldn’t he get praise from China?”, asked the Congress, which criticised the Prime Minister’s handling of the Line of Actual Control tensions.
The Top Five
What we are reading - the best of The Hindu’s Opinion and Analysis
- 1. N. Ravi Kumar explains how the trouble in the Red Sea has impacted India.
- Suhasini Haidar reports from Bhutan on King Jigme’s ambitious plans for a mega city project in the sleepy town of Gelephu.
- Stanly Johny on why the Islamic State (IS) terror group, which claimed responsibility for the January 3 bomb attacks, is targeting Iran.
- The disservice Hamas has done, writes T.S. Tirumurti, who was India’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations (2020-22) and the first Indian Representative to the Palestinian Authority in Gaza (1996-98), is to project the conflict as one between Muslims and Jews rather than between Palestinians and Israelis.
- Saumya Kalia profiles Bezalel Smotrich, Israel’s Finance Minister and leader of the far-right Religious Zionist Party, who wants Palestinians to be ‘encouraged’ to leave Gaza.
