The Maldivian high commissioner to India was summoned on Monday to the external affairs ministry and was read the riot act over derogatory remarks posted on social media against Prime Minister Narendra Modi by several ministers in President Mohamed Muizzu's government.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
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The Madivian high commissioner, Ibrahim Shaheeb, was told that since the Maldives have spoiled the bilateral relationship, the onus is on President Muizzu to repair it, people aware of the matter said. It was further impressed upon the envoy that the three junior ministers should be dismissed and not just suspended.
The MEA was curt with the high commissioner who was shown the door in four minutes, according to people cited above.
New Delhi is outraged over President Muizzu's silence over the uncouth behaviour of the three junior ministers, particularly the two lady ministers who are supposed to be the mouthpiece of the President. In fact, MEA is wondering whether the junior ministers were instructed to cause this outrage deliberately on the eve of President Muizzu's visit to China to seek funds from President Xi Jinping.
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The three deputy ministers had used objectionable remarks on Modi for his post on 'X' following his visit to Lakshadweep, inferring that it was an attempt to project the Union Territory as an alternative tourist destination to the Maldives.
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The three deputy ministers had used objectionable remarks on Modi for his post on 'X' following his visit to Lakshadweep, inferring that it was an attempt to project the Union Territory as an alternative tourist destination to the Maldives.
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The Maldivian foreign ministry said the government is aware of "derogatory remarks" on social media platforms against foreign leaders and that the personal views do not represent its position.
"The government of Maldives is aware of derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high-ranking individuals. These opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the government of Maldives," the Maldivian foreign ministry said in a statement on Sunday.
Shishir Gupta is Executive Editor at Hindustan Times and one of India's top journalists covering national security, strategic affairs, foreign policy and geopolitics. Over the past three decades, he has extensively reported on India's military, diplomatic and security landscape, covering every major conflict and national security challenge, from the 1999 Kargil War and the 2020 East Ladakh standoff to Operation Sindoor in 2025. He has also covered major terror attacks, including the IC-814 hijacking, the 26/11 Mumbai attacks and the 2025 Pahalgam terror strike, along with numerous Pakistan-backed terrorist incidents in the Kashmir Valley and across India. He has reported on national and state elections for more than three decades. A recognised authority on strategic affairs, Gupta has covered India's nuclear programme since the Pokhran-II (Shakti series) tests in May 1998 and has written extensively on global nuclear issues, Indian diplomacy and the country's expanding global outreach. He has also reported widely on international conflicts and terrorism, with a special focus on the Indian subcontinent. Gupta has interviewed Prime Minister Narendra Modi more than four times, including Modi's first interview with the print media after becoming Prime Minister in May 2014. His other interviews include three with the Dalai Lama, as well as conversations with Benjamin Netanyahu, Amit Shah, Yogi Adityanath, S. Jaishankar, Nirmala Sitharaman and Piyush Goyal. He is the author of Indian Mujahideen: The Enemy Within (Hachette, 2011) and Himalayan Face-off: Chinese Assertion and Indian Riposte (Hachette, 2014). He was awarded the Chevening-Wolfson Joint Scholarship at Wolfson College, University of Cambridge, UK, in 1998 and participated in the International Visitor Leadership Program (IVLP) of the US State Department in 2006. He received the Ben Gurion Prize from Israel in 2011 and the K. Subrahmanyam Prize for Strategic Studies in 2015 from the Manohar Parrikar Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (MP-IDSA). Since 2024, he has hosted Point Blank, Hindustan Times' weekly YouTube show on global geopolitics.
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