The Foreign Ministry has condemned the allegations made by some senior members of the opposition Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) against the Indian High Commissioner to the Maldives D M Mulay and stressed that the accusations were totally baseless and unfounded. During their visit to India last month with former President Mohamed Nasheed, Ameen Faisal, Defence Advisor of Nasheed and the interim chairperson of MDP and Hulhu-Henveiru MP Moosa 'Reeko' Manik in an interview to ‘Open Magazine’ had claimed that Mulay was involved in the February 7 transfer of power, which Nasheed claims was a "coup".
A press release by the Foreign Ministry further expressed respect for High Commissioner Mulay and highlighted his contributions to further strengthening the close bilateral ties between the Maldives and India.
The article reported that Ameen had claimed that he was surprised to know that during the time of the national crisis Mulay had been in the company of Abdulla Yamin, leader of the Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) parliamentary group, at the Indian High Commission in Male.
Moosa also alleged that Mulay had not acted adequately to calm the situation on his part.
“How many times did Mulay try to talk to somebody in the Government of India during the chaos? How many times did Mulay call the Indian Government to ask them to intervene? There are 30,000 Indians living here and Indian business interests are at stake. He should have informed the Indian authorities,†Moosa said.
“I believe that proper information was not passed on to Indian authorities,†Faisal said, backing Moosa’s claims.
“While the Government of Maldives fails to understand the motives behind such unacceptable allegations made in respect of an esteemed diplomat of Mulay’s caliber, it may be recalled that close aides of President Mr. Mohamed Nasheed has in the past leveled similar allegations against President Waheed, Maldives National Defence Force, Maldives Police Service and all other political leaders of orchestrating the transfer of power,†the press release read.
The Foreign Ministry further said that the government hoped that MDP would refrain from accusing close allies of the Maldives in future.
Meanwhile, Indian based ZeeNews had reported that Mulay on Tuesday termed as "baseless" and "flight of fancy" the allegations regarding his involvement in the recent change of government in the Maldives.
"All allegations are absolutely baseless and are certainly flight of fancy. Such utterances are also not in keeping with the excellent spirit of cooperation between India and Maldives. It is important that nothing should be done to harm the strong relations and we should strive to build further on them. We also believe that these statements will not come in the way of the goodwill and friendship between our two nations," Mulay said in a statement, Zee News further reported.
However, the Indian High Commission in Male had declined a request from Haveeru to obtain a comment of the High Commissioner in relation to the matter.
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