Trouble in Paradise


Trouble in paradise
By Aalap Trivedi
Why does the emergency declared in Maldives mean so much to India?
Maldives has been making the headlines for all the wrong reasons across all the news channels this month. Located south of the Lakshadweep islands, for India this is worrying. An unstable Maldives is a ticking time-bomb in the Indian Ocean. How can a nation of 26 atolls have the potential to destabilise the Indian Ocean?
The History
India was one of the first countries to recognise Maldives after it gained independence from the British. Since then India and Maldives have built upon those ties economically, culturally and militarily.
Maldives acts to counter the rise of Sri Lankan dominance in the region just south of India in the Indian Ocean. This made Maldives an attractive proposition for India. Indian Ocean is home to one of the most navigated shipping routes. This is due to fact that the energy need of all the Asian economic powerhouses is shipped along these routes. Maldives’ geography also makes it an important base to establish naval anti-piracy operations in the Indian Ocean. This is why India has helped set up radars on all 26 Maldivian atolls and also permanently established two of their helicopters in the country.
India has literally put their feet on the ground in Maldives. During the political crisis of 1988 when a group of Tamil insurgents from Sri Lanka took over the airport and the capital Mahe and caused the Maldivian President Abdul Gayoom to flee the country as they thought of making it the base of their operations. Gayoom asked the Indian government to help. Within hours, India put some 1600 troops on the ground and ended the coup without a single casualty of their own. The swift action and success of this “Operation Cactus” earned plaudits from all over the world including President Regan and Prime Minister Thatcher of the US and the UK respectively. This brought the two nations even closer.
Maldives, one of the founding members of SAARC, is an important economic partner for India. Although the Bi-lateral trade between the two nations is heavily in the favour of the Indians, thousands of Indians call Maldives as their home and it gets many tourists from India as well. Indian banks have been instrumental in providing a lot of aid to the nation.
Drinking water is scarce and expensive in Maldives even on a good day. During the drinking water crisis of 2014 when the nation’s only water treatment plant collapsed, Maldives turned to India for help. India responded by filling up their heavy lift transporters with packed water and sent it to Maldives. They also sent two of their navy ships which had on board desalination plants to the country.

The Present
Since 2015 the relations have started to become strained, especially after the arrest of the former (and the first democratically elected) President Nasheed. Also the reports of rise of radical Islamism in this island nation is a source of concern especially due to its strategic and geographical location for maritime trade. This has become a source for concern for Indian and the world governments. The proof that the relations are strained can be witnessed by PM Modi cancelling his scheduled visit to the island in recent times.
Add the newer investments from China in the government projects is something which further complicates the relations. This is nothing new for those who follow Chinese foreign policies. They’ve looked to extend their influence among India’s neighbours for quite a while. Thus creating a siege around India. This scribe strongly advocates that India does the same with China and its neighbours. India already is trying the same with Japan. Taiwan seems a good bet too. Taiwan is Asia’s most liberal democracy and neither the US nor Australia seem to be keen on taking China head-on for Taiwan.

This recent emergency and crisis gives a chance to re-establish their strong ties with Maldives and exert their geo-political might over the Indian Ocean and allows them a chance to stay the dominant force in the Indian Ocean for the foreseeable future.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

In-Vogue Trudeau's Visit to India

Whispers of Khalistan? Trudeau’s visit to India can reopen old wounds by Aalap Trivedi Air India 182 took off from Montreal to go to Bombay via London and Delhi. Just off the coast of Ireland, a bomb on board exploded and killed 329 people. The main suspects for the bombing were Sikh separatists “Babbar Khalsa”. The date was 23 June 1985. More than three decades later, this incident still haunts people from both nations. They have started to talk about it again(in whispers) as the charismatic, young Canadian PM, Trudeau visited India. Not a lot can go wrong for you if you're Canada. It is one of the few countries in the world which is universally liked. On closer inspection though, it is clear that it has had some trouble with its largest Indian diaspora i.e. the Sikhs. As with the people, the roots of the problem lay in India. “Operation Blue Star” was something I’d heard a lot of, growing up as a 90s kid. It was something unprecedented in India’s history and g...
Read more

India-Israel and their Diplomatic Relations

India-Israel Diplomacy  by Aalap Trivedi Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi broke protocol to visit his Israeli counterpart, Benjamin Netanyahu at the airport in New Delhi in January 2018. They hugged and lifted their joined hands in the air showing solidarity. India has come far from its early stance in regards to Israel, but is this just a marriage of convenience or a sign of a tectonic shift in New Delhi’s foreign policy. The History People of both these countries have their own rich, vivid and ancient culture, albeit one which didn't see a lot of mixture between the two. Some historical evidence suggests that unlike any other place they went, the small number of Jewish refugees who came to the ancient Indian shores, were historically faced with no oppression in India. But things changed when Israel became a sovereign country. Israel gained independence from the British in 1948 and immediately captured the Arab Palestinian lands they used to share, making...
Read more