Opposition in Maldives intensifies ‘India Out’ Campaign

Maldives:The India-Maldives relationship, which has been on the upswing since the Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) Mohamed Ibrahim Solih took over the reins as president in November 2018, is in the crosshairs of Maldivian opposition parties.
Over the past few months, the Progressive Congress, a coalition of the opposition Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) and the People’s National Congress (PNC), has been spearheading an “India Out” campaign in the Indian Ocean archipelago. In addition to anti-India rallies and campaigns on social media, the opposition has taken its fight to Parliament as well.
In late August, during a massive anti-India rally in the capital, Male, a high-rise building that housed the State Bank of India went up in flames. While it is unclear whether the fire was an accident or an act of sabotage, it is significant that the Maldivian government did not take it lightly and handed over the building’s perimeter security to the Maldives National Defense Forces.
While the focus of the opposition’s India Out campaign is of course, India, its primary target is the government, which is deepening cooperation with New Delhi. The MDP is widely seen to be a pro-India party.
The opposition has accused the MDP government of “selling off Maldives” to India and is demanding Solih’s resignation. It has described former President Abdulla Yameen as the “solution” to the Maldives’ problems and is demanding his release from jail. Yameen, who was the country president between 2013 and 2018, quit the PPM to found the PNC in January this year.
It was during Yameen’s presidency that Maldives’ relations with China warmed considerably. The archipelago joined the Belt and Road Initiative and borrowed heavily from the Chinese to fund infrastructure projects. The period saw a sharp downturn in India-Maldives relations.
Before Yameen assumed office, the India-Maldives relationship was strong for decades. India’s support to President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, who ruled the country between 1978 and 2008, was central to the survival of his authoritarian rule for over three decades. India had even dispatched commandos to the archipelago in November 1988 when Sri Lankan Tamil mercenaries attempted to topple him in a coup.

Strong ties between India and the Maldives are not restricted to the elite level. Thousands of Maldivians have studied in Indian schools and universities and many have come to India for medical treatment. Yet, as in other South Asian countries, in the Maldives too, politicians and political parties, whether in power or in opposition, stir anti-India sentiment to deflect attention away from domestic woes or to mobilize support against the government.
Yameen promoted Maldivian nationalism with an anti-India focus to tighten his grip over power. Accusing India of infringing on Maldivian sovereignty, he allowed a defense agreement to expire in 2018 under which India stationed two naval choppers in Maldives and, in a show of defiance, even ordered India to take back the helicopters it had gifted Male under the pact.
It is the reported stationing of Indian military personnel in the Maldives that the opposition’s India Out campaign has pounced upon.
The opposition is demanding that the Solih government disclose the contents of the agreement it signed with India. It filed an emergency motion in the parliament in October last year seeking details of the pact that the Indian and Maldivian militaries had signed. While the motion was turned down by the speaker on the grounds that it involved matters of national security, the issue continues to generate heat in the Maldives and is unlikely to die down in the coming months.