Khaleel: Report claiming India’s RAW agents colluded to overthrow govt. completely false

Foreign Minister Dr. Abdulla Khaleel has denied the Washington Post’s report claiming India colluded with Maldivian opposition to topple incumbent President Dr. Mohamed Muizzu’s administration, describing it as “completely untrue”.

Minister Khaleel made the remark during an interview with Indian media outlet Wion during his recent official visit to the neighboring nation.

In this regard, Minister Khaleel said alleged that various individuals were working on disrupting Maldives-India ties, As an example, he pointed out a recent report published by the Washington Post which he described as “totally untrue”.

“It is totally untrue, unfounded. There is no truth in that. I'm not sure from where they got the evidence to base it on. But it's totally untrue,” he said.

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.

The current administration which came to power after campaigning under the slogan ‘India Out’ is described as ‘Pro-China’ by many foreign media outlets.

Relations between Male’ and New Delhi had been strained in the early days of President Muizzu’s presidency after he demanded that India withdraw its troops from Maldives – executing a pledge he made during his presidential campaign. Things escalated further after three Maldivian deputy ministers made disparaging remarks regarding India and Indian Prime Minister Modi following a social media post promoting India’s Lakshadweep as an alternative tourist destination to the Maldives.

The Maldives Foreign Ministry was quick to distance itself from the remarks, saying that they do not represent the views of the Male’ government. The three junior ministers were suspended, and two of them, later resigned.

But despite the earlier turmoil, officials from both Male’ and Delhi repeatedly expressed keenness to maintain relations and engaged in several high-level visits between the two countries. Subsequently, relations between the neighboring nations have stabilized.