LAKSHADWEEP VS MALDIVES OR INDIA VS CHINA
4th January 2024, Mr. Narendra Modi, Prime Minister of India posted some pictures of his latest visit to Lakshadweep on his social media handles.
Controversy burst out when three deputy ministers at the Youth Ministry of Maldives commented rebelliously on the post stating that the post is violating the honour and pride of Maldives and shifting the tourism from their land to Lakshadweep. This digital conflict led the harmonious friendship between the two countries into danger. This issue took an ugly turn when hash tags of Boycott Maldives went trending on social media.
Mariyam Shiuna, Malsha Shareef and Abdula Mahzoom Majid furious comments showcased their brewing insecurity as they misjudged PM Modi's posts as a promotion of Lakshadweep. Mariyam Shiuna mentioned "What a clown. The puppet of Israel Mr. Narendra diver with life jacket" with the hash tags of #VisitMaldives and #SunnySideOfLife. The posts are taken with the idea of competition. Abdulla Mahzoom Majid took the fight a step ahead by sharing a video of an openly urinating man, calling it the culture of India, commenting, "In India, shitting openly in public spaces is part of the national culture. They are bringing this revolting habit to the West."
When Indian tourists and visitors started cancelling their trips to Maldives then the Maldivian government realised the depth of the situation and the Maldivian foreign ministry politely got away from their remarks, saying that all these comments are individual views and do not represent the country's governmental psyche and political opinions. The official statement read, "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 Maldivian government suspended them for their disrespectful and derogatory comments.
The Republic of Maldives, also known as "the islands of Male" is the smallest country and an archipelago state in South Asia, situated in the Indian Ocean. Tourism is the mainstay of Maldivian economy. There are 1,190 coral islands dotted around 26 ring like atolls, of which around 200 are inhabited by the local people and around 150 are private resort islands particularly for tourism purposes. The relationship between the two countries brews since they have been the strategic allies and there also has been military cooperation between them. India has played a special role in initiatives like 'Security And Growth for All in the Region', popularly known as SAGAR. India also acted as a helping hand during natural calamities in Maldives by conducting search and rescue operations and airlifting medical patients between islands. The two countries share joint exercises like "Ekuverin", "Dosti", "Ekatha" and "Operation Shield" (begun in 2021). India also provides the largest number of training opportunities, for around 70% for Maldivian National Defence Force (MNDF). In 2021, Afcons signed a contract for the largest ever infrastructure project "Greater Male Connectivity Project" in Maldives. India has been a helping hand, performing several welfare projects in Maldives like Operation Cactus in 1988, Operation Neer in 2014 and operation Sanjeevni during Covid.
The friendship suffered a setback when Maldives entered to a Free Trade Agreement with China in 2017. The internal and domestic politics of Maldives is much concerned with China as we witness a major drift from India to China between these years, through the increasing Chinese Infrastructure Investments in Maldives and its participation and promotion of China's Belt and Road Initiative. The friendship suffered a setback when Maldives entered a Free Trade Agreement with China in 2017.
Main- ruling Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP)'s Group Leader Ali Azim has stated that India out campaigns instigated against India Maldives relations aims to create loopholes between the two countries and divert the minds from the corruption allegations raised against the higher ups of the opposition.
Is this a mere coincidence that this issue raised just a day before Prime Minister Mohammed Mizzu's visit to China skipping a key Indian Ocean security meet with India, opting to attend the Chinese Forum. He has been called a pro-China and an anti-India favoring the sentiment of "India out" through his political party PPM. Maldives has also set deadline for India to remove its small contingent of 77 military personnel and 12 medical staff from the Indian armed forces till 15th March. This shows Maldives growing inclination towards China. Whereas on the other hand, Beijing clarified that it never asked Male to reject New Delhi because of the conflicts between China and India, nor does it view cooperation between Maldives and India as unfriendly or a threat.....New Delhi should stay more open minded as China's cooperation with South Asian countries is not a zero-sum game.
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