India-Maldives relations undermined because of National Movement: Yameen

Progressive Party of Maldives (PPM) Parliamentary Group Leader Abdulla Yameen has said that India is the closest country the Maldives can ask for help, and that if the relationship between Maldives and India has been “scratched”, it is because of the People’s National Movement.

Talking in a program by DhiTV last night, Mulaku MP Yameen said that the people who addressed the street protests organized by the National Movement did not always speak along the same ideas and emotions.

He said that those speeches have started to cause resentment amongst Indians and Maldivians. He added that while protesting and filing petitions are not things that should be condemned, they did not have to hold demonstrations when it was apparent that the government was steadily working towards meeting their demands.

Yameen also said that the retrieval of the airport had nothing to with the demonstrations staged by the National Movement.

“India has always helped us financially, every time the government has been in need. During demonstrations on the streets every night, not everybody talked under the same idea, or with the same feelings. I believe that, because we had done this continuously, and to an extent where it has created animosity between individual citizens of the two countries, that this will have negative impacts. It was done very irresponsibly. We did not have to do it that way. The airport was reclaimed because the parties had asked the government to reclaim it, and because the government had decided to oblige. It did not happen because the National Movement had pressured the government into submission,” said Yameen.

He said that one cannot gauge public support from street protests and that popular ideas will be duly expressed by the voices of the political parties. He also said that the country will have to face the consequences of the actions of the National Movement, especially during the negotiations of the annulment of the GMR contact.

“The GMR contract was not terminated due to street protests. We don’t have to protest while our government is in power. What some government ministers and ministers of state have filed out on the streets and done, you have to understand that there are people watching from afar,” said Yameen.

Upon the annulment of the GMR agreement, the Indian government had said that they will be monitoring the situation in the Maldives closely and that they are prepared to take the necessary actions to ensure the safety and security of its people and interests.