India has options to force Male hand
As a miffed New Delhi watches an increasingly recalcitrant Maldives government on the GMR airport deal termination, it has warned that “there will be implications” and a “slew of measures” against Male if “they continue down this road”.
Noting that there are a “slew of options across the board that are available for India”, sources on Wednes-day said the freezing of development cooperation assistance to Maldives is just one of them. For instance, they noted that the archipelago with limited agriculture is heavily dependent on India for its supply of vegetables, inclu-ding onions and potatoes.
Sources also indicated that the construction of a police institute which is to be built with Indian assistance could also be hit. The MoU for building this institute which is expected to cost $18.3 million was signed when Union home minister Sushilkumar Shinde visited the Maldives in September this year.
As for declarations by the Maldives government that it will pay compensation to GMR, New Delhi wonders from where the huge amount will come. Sources said while Maldives looks towards India for external aid, from where will it garner the $500 to $700 million of compensation to GMR? New Delhi is well aware that the President Moham-med Waheed Hassan-led government’s decision to terminate the GMR agreement has political connotations.
Sources noted that ever since the Commonwealth-backed probe into his taking over as President in February this year which in its October report said his assumption of power was legitimate, President Waheed is now trying to prepare for the elections slated for next year.
Until the Commonwealth report, there were questions about the legitimacy of Mr Waheed’s presidency. After it, he’s been seeing himself as the legitimate president sources added. Further, while both India and the Maldives knew that the GMR issue required a “negotiated settlement”, the Commonwealth report has prompted Mr Waheed to give negotiations the short shrift. With an eye on next year’s elections, Mr Waheed is now trying to enhance his base in his country, said sources. In doing so, he is catering to the fringe elements who were earlier kept at bay in his country, sources noted. Sources emphasised how Maldives had chosen to “totally forget the legal aspects”. Noting that the airport project in Male was a joint venture with a Mala-ysian company, sources said the Maldives government had initially thought that the Malaysians would step in once GMR was out.
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