India warns Maldives of serious consequences on GMR issue
New Delhi: Taken by “surprise” over GMR issue, India has conveyed to Maldives that it will have serious consequences on the bilateral ties.
India acknowledges that the Maldivian government’s decision to cancel GMR’s contract for building Male airport is a domestic issue but it is upset over “anti-India sentiment being whipped up” in connection with the issue there.
However, if the Maldivian government chooses to “flout” the legal option and an anti-India atmosphere continues to be whipped up, it will have “serious consequences” for the bilateral relations, the sources said.
The cancellation of the contract came as a “suprise” to India, the sources said, adding the issue of any wrongdoing, as alleged, was never raised by Maldives during a series of contacts between leaders and officials of the two countries over last one year. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, during his visit to Male in November last year, met two opposition leaders but this subject was never raised even though some “fringe parties” had been creating controversy over the issue, the sources said.
The controversy, which came to the fore during the tenure of former President Mohamed Nasheed, remained “dormant” ever since his ouster in February, they noted.
But the cancellation of the contract in the last week of November came as a surprise to India which sees the decision linked to President Mohd Waheed’s growing ambitions to contest next year’s Presidential polls after legitimacy was bestowed on his regime by a Commission of Inquiry. His predecessor Nasheed had been claiming that he was ousted in a coup by Waheed.
India feels Waheed decided to “ride a tiger and now he does not know how to disembark”.
Not sure whether ADC amounted to taxation, India feels a way out on this could have been exempting Maldivian nationals from the charge of USD 25 per internationally departing passenger.
This offer was, in fact, made by GMR before the contract was cancelled but it was not considered by the Maldivian government.
