Nasheed claims no idea of attempt to impeach Muizzu, says India will not support it

Former President Mohamed Nasheed has said he did receive any information that the Maldives political opposition colluded with the India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) to impeach President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu.

The Washington Post on a Monday article claimed that members of the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) and The Democrats had conspired to impeach the incumbent president.

According to the Washington Post, talks between opposition leaders and some RAW agents took place to topple Muizzu’s administration, which came to power with the pledge to remove the Indian military present in the Maldives.

The article stated that at the time when the current administration came to power in November last year, MDP which had the parliament majority had attempted to cast a no-confidence vote against Muizzu.

Washington Post said that the plan, in a paper called the ‘Democratic Renewal Initiative’, included bribing 40 MPs including the ruling People’s National Congress (PNC) members to pass a no-confidence motion to impeach Solih’s successor.

The article also claimed that in addition of the MPs, the plan was to pay ten senior officers of the Maldives Police Service and Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) and three gangs operating in the Maldives. Although several MPs had agreed, the article claimed, the attempt required bribe money.

The opposition had attempted to acquire USD 6 million required to execute the plan from India.

In response to the Washington Post article, Nasheed said that though he read it, he was not aware of any such conspiracies. He however, noted that there would always be individuals scheming for ulterior gains.

While the Washington Post article claimed of discussions between opposition MPs and India’s RAW, Nasheed claimed the South Asian ally supports preservation of democracy in the Maldives and would never support a decision to impeach any of its presidents.

Nasheed further said that India never dictated Maldives’ political affairs at any given time.

During his administration, Nasheed had maintained a close relation with India, and is a vocal critic of China.

The current administration is described as ‘Pro-China’ by several foreign news agencies.