Though the Indian government has now assured that it would not deploy troops to resolve the ongoing political crisis in the Maldives, the country's defence minister expects the incessant requests for Indian military intervention to strain ties with its neighbour.
Speaking during an interview with state television, defence minister Adam Shareef Umar said the talks about possible Indian military intervention could adversely affect investments and could possibly hinder Maldivians travelling to India.
".... it could affect the respect Maldivians have for their neighbours. Or the respect Indians have for us. It could affect Indian investments coming in to the Maldives. It is possible that there maybe some difficulties facing Indian businessmen when visiting the Maldives or for Maldivians when travelling to India," the minister explained.
Shareef also warned that ordinary citizens face the brunt of such issues urging a more diplomatic and responsible way to handle the situation.
The minister's comments came hours after the Maldives military announced confirmation from the Indian government that it would not to resort to military intervention in the current political strife in the island nation.
Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) in a statement noted that repeated calls to neighbours India seeking military assistance to end the strife in the Maldives.
But both countries would honour the long standing relations and India has now assured that it would heed the calls for a military intervention, the statement said.
"... such rumours are designed to undermine the relations between Maldives and India," MNDF said.
The statement reiterated that neither the government nor MNDF had requested for foreign military assistance or support for the island nation.
The island nation has been embroiled in fresh political turmoil after the Supreme Court on February 1 ordered the immediate release of jailed political leaders including self-exiled former president Mohamed Nasheed.
President Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom had declared a 15 day state of emergency after his last ditch attempt to convince the top court to revoke the order failed as the apex court rejected the government's 'legal and judicial' concerns over the order.
Since emergency state was declared police have made a series of high profile arrests including Gayoom, two lawmakers, chief justice Abdulla Saeed, top court judge Ali Hameed and the chief judicial administrator.
Less than a day after the arrest of the two judges, the remaining three judges rescinded its ruling to release the political leaders referring to the concerns raised by president Yameen in the letters he had sent to the chief justice hours before state of emergency was declared.
Nasheed has led the calls to India to send in troops to end the crisis. Nasheed has publicly asked India to send a special envoy with “military backing” to the Maldives.
Police on Sunday had claimed that new evidence had been uncovered in connection to the plot adding that a total eight people had been arrested thus far over the case.
In the statement, police had claimed to have uncovered document evidence implicating the suspects to the case revealing that over USD200,000 along with over MVR150,000 were found in a bag that belonged to judge Ali Hameed.
Police also said judge Ali Hameed had purchased a flat with the bribe money and an unnamed company had "loaned" over USD2 million to the judge.
The latest accusations came after police had confirmed Gayoom had bribed the judges into issuing the order in a bid to overthrow the government.
The accusations against Gayoom included bribing lawmakers and judges to influence their authority while the deposed ruling party leader has also been accused of creating discord within the security forces to back the overthrow of his half-brother's government.
The two top court judges are accused of accepting bribes to influence Supreme Court rulings, abuse of power and blocking the functioning of the entire justice system.
In addition to Nasheed, the other top political leaders named in the now rescinded order included Jumhoory Party (JP) leader Gasim Ibrahim, religiously conservative Adhaalath Party (AP) leader Sheikh Imran Abdulla, former defence minister Mohamed Nazim, former vice president Ahmed Adheeb Abdul Ghafoor and Gayoom's lawmaker son Faris Maumoon.
Former prosecutor general Muhthaz Muhsin, magistrate Ahmed Nihan and Adheeb's uncle Hamid Ismail make up the rest of the list.
