Taking exception to disparaging remarks against Prime Minister Narendra Modi by a Maldives Minister, the Maldivian Government on Sunday suspended three Ministers whose social media posts against India and Modi sparked a massive uproar.
“The Ministry of Foreign Affairs today issued a statement on the stand of the Government of India in relation to some posts on social media that are insulting to neighbouring India,” the Maldives Goverment said in a statement.
A row erupted after Maldivian politicians, including Mariyam Shiuna, mocked Prime Minister Modi’s recent visit to Lakshadweep.
“Those who made such posts on social media while in Government positions have now been suspended from their jobs,” the statement said without revealing the names of those who have been suspended. According to local media, Ministers Mariyam Shiuna, Malsha and Hassan Zihan have been suspended.
Soon after India raised the issue with the island country, the Maldives Government distanced itself from the remarks and termed them as “personal opinion” of Minister Mariyam and said they do not represent the views of the Maldives Government. It suspended the Ministers but not reveal their names.
Indian High Commissioner in Male took up the matter with the authorities there. Incidentally, these remarks came a day before President Mohamed Muizzu leaves for China on an official visit. Moreover, since he assumed the top job, ties between India and Maldives are strained.
As the objectionable remarks led to an uproar, the Maldives Government, in an earlier statement on Sunday, rejected the derogatory remarks made by the country’s Minister against Modi stating that they do not represent the views of the Government.
“The Government of Maldives is aware of 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,” the official statement read.
“The Government believes that freedom of expression should be exercised in a democratic and responsible manner, and in ways that do not spread hatred, negativity, and hinder close relationships between the Maldives and its international partners. Moreover, the relevant authorities of the Government will not hesitate to take action against those who make such derogatory remarks,” it added.
Shiuna, Deputy Minister of Youth Empowerment in the Maldives, called Modi a ‘clown’ and ‘puppet of Israel’ in now-deleted posts on X. The tweets were taken down after backlash on the micro-blogging site. Another Maldivian leader and a member of the Progressive Party of Maldives Senate Zahid Rameez made comments ridiculing the beaches of Lakshadweep and raising doubts about whether the beach tourism services offered by it could compare with those provided the Maldives. “The move is great. However, the idea of competing with us is delusional. How can they provide the service we offer? How can they be so clean?
The permanent smell in the rooms will be the biggest downfall,” Rameez wrote on X.
These comments led to a furore with several social media posts claiming that over 8,000 hotel bookings, as well as 2,500 flight tickets to the Maldives were cancelled.
India-Maldives ties in the past few months have been strained, after President Mohamed Muizzu came to power. Muizzu took over as President in November 2023. In his election pledge, he said he would remove a small contingent of some 75 Indian military personnel in his island nation and change Maldives’s “India first” policy.
Seen as a pro-China politician, Muizzu had defeated his India-friendly predecessor Ibrahim Mohamed Solih in the presidential run-off held in September.
Muizzu is scheduled to visit China on Monday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said in a statement. Chinese President Xi Jinping invited him, China’s foreign ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying said on Friday.
“China and the Maldives boast time-honoured friendship. In the past 52 years since the establishment of diplomatic ties, the two countries have treated each other with respect and supported each other, setting a fine example of equality and mutual benefits between countries of different sizes,” said Wang Wenbin, another spokesperson of the Chinese foreign ministry, according to news agency PTI.
Muizzu’s predecessors in the recent past visited India first, considering the wide-ranging bilateral ties and the Maldives’ proximity to India, followed by China which has expanded its influence in the island nation by investing in major infrastructure projects there.
The new Maldives President had met Prime Minister Modi in Dubai on the sidelines of the COP28 climate talks in December 2023. Both leaders had agreed to set up a core group to discuss the multidimensional relations and further deepen ties.
The meeting also took place after Muizzu asked New Delhi to withdraw 77 Indian military personnel from the Maldives and decided to review more than 100 bilateral agreements between the two countries.
The new Maldives Vice President Hussain Mohamed Latheef last month visited China, his first visit abroad, and took part in the China-sponsored China-Indian Ocean Region Forum on Development Cooperation in Kunming.
Significantly, while praising Chinese infrastructure projects, Latheef made no mention of China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) under which most of the Maldives’ infrastructure projects were built.
The Maldives is India’s key maritime neighbour in the Indian Ocean Region and occupies a special place in India’s initiatives such as SAGAR, or Security and Growth for All in the Region, and the ‘Neighbourhood-First Policy’ of the Modi government.
The Maldives’ proximity to India, barely 70 nautical miles from the island of Minicoy in Lakshadweep, and 300 nautical miles from the mainland’s western coast, and its location at the hub of commercial sea lanes running through the Indian Ocean, gives it significant strategic importance.
