India - The Indian Ocean Civilization & IOR

member_23629 · Post by **member_23629** » 17 Feb 2013 20:56

^^^ Might as well invade the god-forsaken place and make it a union territory.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 17 Feb 2013 21:05

^ only Christian, Islamic and communist nations can invade. secular India cannot.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 18 Feb 2013 21:27

Source says -

Let us arrest Nasheed, Maldives tells Indian High Commission

Philip · Post by **Philip** » 18 Feb 2013 21:45

The MEA must forcefully remind the current dictatorial regime in Male to behave itself.After all the British example on non-interference with the Ecuadoreans after the Wikileaks founder ,Julian Assange took shelter there in similar circumstances,to avoid a lethal legal trap,by following the rule book.

In such circumstances,what India must do is to send a naval task force with marines aboard,tto anchor just outside Maldivian territorial waters.A supersonic flight over the presidential palace would also be a good way to bring this arrogant bullfrog gasping for air!

JE Menon · Post by **JE Menon** » 18 Feb 2013 22:27

Philip what is actually going on there? Any rumblings in SL?

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 18 Feb 2013 22:51

Nasheed and his people will have to decide if they want to be part of India very soon if things continue like this. Will the current GoI act tough and has Nasheed seen the writing on the wall. Independent Maldives days are numbered it seems.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 18 Feb 2013 23:25

^ In what capacity Nasheed and 'his people' (another invisible "silent" majority?) will declare the merger with Indian union?

If India is pu$$ifooting on J&K, how can it help Maldives?

When are we seeing Burkha Dutt doing "Repeal of AFSPA in Maldives" debate on unditv?

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 18 Feb 2013 23:27

It can seek to become part a far away district of Kerala and thus restore its historical connections.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 18 Feb 2013 23:29

It can become part of greater Lakshwadeep islands chains and a UT.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 19 Feb 2013 00:06

Again, my question is who is going to initiate the process

1. India - meaning it is occupying a nation state
2. Maldives - Who/how?
3. Nasheed - for all practical purposes he is just an MP and possibly a convict

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 19 Feb 2013 00:27

Option 1 maybe out, since India has not moved on this before.

It has to come from Maldives, some section of leaders. If most investments there are from India (black finding its way there) the natural course will be to follow the money trail for allegiance for small countries. But are Nasheed and others ready for it. Nasheed seeking protection in the embassy compound is an extreme step for an ex-president.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 19 Feb 2013 00:31

True.

But I doubt India, at this current juncture, can touch Maldives given
1. Its enemies (especially non-friendly OIC, PRC and West) can call it as a invasion. I wish India did such a thing when it was a member of UNSC.
2. What happens to the islamisation of Maldives? Will it continue unabated? can India impose Disturbed Areas act? What will be the impact on Indian Muslim majority enclaves withing India proper?
3. Upcoming elections in 2014.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 19 Feb 2013 00:51

If India takes the extreme action, it will have no bearing on the elections. So it may be a reason it will do nothing. Most Indians (even muslims) would hardly care one way or the other. There will be the usual media frenzy. But so what.

If there is more islamization in Maldives, I do not see how GoI can stop that being on the outside as a spectator. It would be able to do more if Maldives joins the union. But that is for later. It is not that Maldives getting islamized even after joining the union, is going to adversely affect India more than if it didn't. So not to worry on that count for now.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 19 Feb 2013 01:17

Lets see how this unfolds...

For me this is an example of how selfish motives, power struggles and even internal competitions of Indian mainland fail it using opportunities in its extended regions....

by using reverse parsing approach - Knowing the outcomes of foreign invasions/colonization when mainland Bharat failed to protect its extended regions, we can see how the current political dispensation is creating conditions for future colonization of India....

devesh · Post by **devesh** » 19 Feb 2013 01:20

Bade wrote: It is not that Maldives getting islamized even after joining the union, is going to adversely affect India more than if it didn't. So not to worry on that count for now.

clarification, please! very cleverly worded. appreciate the effort.
are you saying Maldives getting 'more' Islamized, as opposed to not getting 'more' Islamized, will have no adverse effect on India?
or, are you saying if Maldives will get Islamized either way (joining or not joining India), might as well make then join b/c the Islamization will have the same effect whether they join or not?

please do clarify. when we are discussing such things, it's better to word in an open manner. otherwise, lot of room for misunderstandings and pages of discussion based on a misconceptions.

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 19 Feb 2013 01:55

Maldives Islamization has a negligible effect on India, as India can be Islamized without any help from Maldives. So it is the latter what I meant. Not trying to be clever, maybe it was a poor choice of words leaving it open ended.

Even an Islamic Maldives within Indian fold, is a better option for India, with more handles. Maybe a split can be effect with Nasheed playing along and see if the fissures are deeper and need some nurturing in the Maldives to take a more certain turn of events. Maybe it is too early, India has to play this well. It has happened before with Sikkim in a different context. In J&K too but the demographics there was even more favorable for India.

Maldives importance to India, is due to Indian maritime interests. We cannot afford to have another big player in the pond.

anupmisra · Post by **anupmisra** » 19 Feb 2013 02:18

Maldives can come voluntarily under Indian influence or control as a UT or protectorate. Then India can incarcerate all rabid islamists there. Just thinking out aloud.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 19 Feb 2013 03:03

For Maldives to even talk about such situation, the elections have to be held and Nasheed have to win the elections. So we need to wait and see.

India will never make a proactive move w.r.t Maldives. If it is even 10% proactive it would have avoided current situation to begin with, followed by the GMR fiasco.

So it is premature to think how to accommodate maldives in Indian Union.

hnair · Post by **hnair** » 19 Feb 2013 03:09

ramana wrote:It can seek to become part a far away district of Kerala and thus restore its historical connections.

nope

devesh · Post by **devesh** » 19 Feb 2013 04:25

how easy is it for Maldivians to come to India? will it become easier in case of integration into the Union?

communication with mainland Islamics is an important aspect. if they join the union, will the Paki/Saudi trained "scholars" in Maldives have a free reign in coming to India and setting up more overt links?

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 19 Feb 2013 04:38

Best strategy for a GoI that has balls and has Indian Interests at heart.

The best idea is to give Assylum to Nasheed and hold him in the consulate. Send a crack Special Ops team to dislodge the Maldives govt and kill majority of the power centers in an organized cleanup. Then Nasheed merges the island nation into Indian union as a union terrotory. The island group is dictated a disrupted area and setups a naval base.

The islands are developed in to SEZs where the islanders become Shareholders, 51% of the holdings in Indian company hands.

The whole plan requires a couple of $B a couple of strong balls, a couple of thousands of Special Ops personnel, a couple of frigates with guided missiles and a couple of squadrons of Su-30MKI.

Does MMs have this?

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 19 Feb 2013 04:56

From what little I know, it has been easy for them to come over for medical treatments etc. Trivandrum is where I learnt about it. Lots of hospitals depend on this traffic. Maybe, hnair can shed more light.

hnair · Post by **hnair** » 19 Feb 2013 09:51

yep, they had a benign travel regime as a "SAARC birather nation with no khakis to queer up the pitch"

The Trivandrum hospitals (and some schools) had feeder facilities over in the isles. For medical needs, whenever anything other than outpatient stuff (including child delivery) is required, they came over. For child delivery, they come with a posse at the second trimester itself and goes back after the delivery. Same for higher education. Had wads of cash and are decent short-time renters, who create minimum fuss. Generally good citizens with rarely, any paki like behaviour. Till now. Tightly watched by neighborhoods and cops since the ISRO scam.

Wimmens among them are pretty strong willed and allegedly, er, fiesty. Despite the head scarfs, some local wannabe maulaners could not provide much "muridke ministrations" to single wimmens and infact got a few sole marks on their face. Heard they can initiate divorce proceedings, unlike other places

Annexing Maldives is not going to happen easy. It will need referendums etc, which can go out of control. Plus all those resorts et al have tons of oiro moneys in it and they will do a Fiji on any Indian plans.

Let them stew around a bit and settle themselves with a bit of prodding. No body else have the money or accessibility to coddle them, except India. The Indian FMin need to send some hard talking men over there. And they have quite a few good ones.

habal · Post by **habal** » 19 Feb 2013 11:41

Visited Trivandrum a few days back, and it is crawling with Mali wimmens, men I do not know since they may not look very different from the locals, but the mali women use these electric dot, leopard print scarves/headdress and are instantly recognisable. They flock around big bazaar and other malls throughout the daytime. Seems their only pastime is shopping. And they seem loaded throwing wads of cash around.

ramana · Post by **ramana** » 20 Feb 2013 00:18

See thats why I said make it an island district of Kerala. Nasheed can be ZP chairman. And instead of going to Gelf folks can go there and setup ITVTY/resorts etc.

nawabs · Post by **nawabs** » 23 Feb 2013 15:13

Stalemate continues in Male; President Mohamed Waheed refuses to meet Indian team

http://www.dnaindia.com/world/report_st ... am_1802649

The deadlock over the situation arising out of Mohamed Nasheed remaining holed up in the Indian Mission for the ninth day on Thursday continued as President Mohamed Waheed refused to meet a high-level team from the Indian foreign office citing "busy schedule".

The team, which is headed by Harsh Vardhan Shringla, Joint Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs and includes officials of legal background, had sought an appointment with Waheed yesterday even as they held a series of meetings with various stakeholders here for the second day.

"President Waheed will not receive the delegation. He had a very busy schedule and tomorrow he would be out of Male," the Maldivian President's Press Secretary Masood Imad said.

Asked when the request was made, he said, "The request came in yesterday. It is difficult to push in the meeting on a day's notice".

Trying to allay fears that the India-Maldives ties have plunged, he said "the bilateral ties are strong as always".

Meanwhile, officials said there has not been any fresh development despite series of talks.

"The talks are still going on. At the moment, there are no signs of situation getting resolved," officials said.

Asked about the developments, Imad said, "It is a stalemate. Somebody has to give way. Indian government understands that the Prosecutor General is independent and we, the government, cannot interfere".

During their meetings with various stakeholders, Indian officials insisted that the current situation should not be allowed to affect bilateral ties, Imad said.

The team has met with Foreign Minister Abdul Samad Abdulla, Defence Minister Mohamed Nazim, lawyers, among others. They also held extensive talks with Nasheed and another potential Presidential candidate Abdullah Yamin of Progressive Party of Maldives, headed by former President Maumoon Gayoom.
The main aim of the team is to "assist" the Indian High Commission to end the stand-off situation, they said adding it will also assess the situation.

The team arrived here yesterday amid hectic diplomatic parleys being held by the Indian High Commission with various political leaders across the spectrum.

Nasheed has been in the Indian Mission since February 13 to evade arrest after he failed to appear in court on charges of detaining Chief Criminal Judge Abdulla Mohamed while he was president, which his party considers politically motivated and designed to disqualify him from politics.

The Court had issued a fresh warrant against Nasheed but had to cancel the hearing yesterday after the police expressed its inability to produce him before it.

Singha · Post by **Singha** » 23 Feb 2013 15:35

Time has come for final act. India should take over maldives and engineer some merger. Sure tsp and cheen will make some noise. Let them. The rest of world doesnt care a rats ass and will be glad another base denied to the pirates and sundry islamists thats all. In public they will make some cluck cluck noises but privately line up in support.

Its a small tumor at present . Better cut it off before a bigger cancer like sino islamic combine sets up shop or cheen is in more position to obstruct.

We can indulge in analysis paralysis and least risk approaches but it wont worry. Better bite the bullet now when costs are low and risk is not there. What happens when 5000 cheen construction workers and managers setup a permanent shop to run the port and airport.

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 23 Feb 2013 15:53

So once we take over and the islamists do raise the hue and cry - what do you propose to do?

member_20317 · Post by **member_20317** » 23 Feb 2013 15:57

^
what do you suppose we should do?

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 23 Feb 2013 16:03

I don't know - thats why I asked...

member_20317 · Post by **member_20317** » 23 Feb 2013 16:08

same here

member_23629 · Post by **member_23629** » 23 Feb 2013 16:41

shyamd wrote:So once we take over and the islamists do raise the hue and cry - what do you propose to do?

Create our own version of Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

chaanakya · Post by **chaanakya** » 23 Feb 2013 16:49

Nasheed comes out of Embassy . Trial may be deferred. : breaking news.

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 24 Feb 2013 15:41

Per press: West backed Indian position and India warned of economic sanctions by UN if human rights weren't gonna be respected by the govt of Maldives . This got the maldivians worried. Nasheed was asked to go through the legal process.

member_23629 · Post by **member_23629** » 27 Feb 2013 23:06

15-Year-Old Alleged Maldives Rape Victim Sentenced To 100 Lashes For Premarital Sex Charge

These people are truly the pits of the world.

hnair · Post by **hnair** » 28 Feb 2013 09:11

ramanaji, it can be a union territory with a local council. Kerala's local administration department (which deals with certain forms of local governance budgets) will have a tough time figuring out what to do.

varunkumar wrote: Create our own version of Guantanamo Bay detention camp.

careful what you wish for - much before Gitmo became cool, the briturds ran Kālā Pāani for tiresome Indians. It was with searing memories and sacrifices that Kālā Pāani was shutdown. So we dont want to regress into such a past.

What if someone like Shree Shinde decides you are a yindoo terrorist posting threatening stuff on the web? Onus will be on your near ones to prove otherwise, because you are practically in a comatose state inside such black facilities designed for terrorizing those considered unter-mensch and hence out of reach of normal penitentiaries.

shyamd · Post by **shyamd** » 01 Mar 2013 13:09

If Nasheed wins, cooperation will deepen between the two even more. All India has to do is pump in the cash to Nasheed.

RamaY · Post by **RamaY** » 01 Mar 2013 17:55

^ wouldn't that be intervening in another country's democratic process? How different is that from military invasion from moral perspective? Since when UPA govt has started such proactive foreign policy?

Bade · Post by **Bade** » 01 Mar 2013 18:12

Pumping will be done not by GoI, but private parties with Govt approval. All clean and peace and trade onlee.

Sri · Post by **Sri** » 01 Mar 2013 20:01

Story of the last hours of coup... Pakistan is more efficient

This article first appeared on Dhivehisitee. Republished with permission.

On 4 July, 2012, Mohamed Nasheed, President of the Maldives until February 7 that year, testified at the Commission of National Inquiry (CoNI) on how his government came to an end. Present were co-chairs of the Commission Justice Selvam and Ismail Shafeeu, members Dr Ibrahim Yasir, Dr Fawaz Shareef and Ahmed Saeed. Observing for the international community were Sir Bruce Robertson and Professor John Packer.

In essence, my statement is very small… I was forced to resign. I resigned under duress. I was threatened. If I did not resign within a stipulated period it would endanger mine and my family’s life. I understood they were going to harm a number of other citizens, party members. They were going to literally sack the town. I felt that I had no other option, other than to resign.

Despite CoNI being a national inquiry looking into the highly suspicious end of a government elected by the people, all testimonies collected have been kept from the public. Having come into possession of a copy of the transcript of Nasheed’s spoken testimony to CoNI on 4 July, I have summarised its contents and shared it with you here. What is contained here is not Nasheed’s entire testimony that day, but only the parts concerning the last few hours of his presidency. Care has been taken, however, to ensure no information has been taken taken out of context, added, or deleted from the text and to remain faithful to Nasheed’s words as contained in the transcript.

President Mohamed Nasheed arrived at Bandaara Koshi at 5:00 am on 7 February 2012. Operation Liberty Shield was supposedly underway, but the place was almost deserted. About 300 personnel in total, most of them in plainclothes, milled about lethargically. There were several generals present—Chief of Defence Moosa Jaleel, General Shiyam, General Nilam, General Ibrahim Didi. The military HQ was on red alert, but most of the generals looked as if they were on holiday.

From the late evening of 6 February, Nasheed had been busy trying to control the situation from Mulee Aage, his residence. Judging from police behaviour during protests on the preceding days, the President was convinced the police must be removed from the scene. He knew plans were afoot to have his government illegally overthrown in a coup. A week earlier, he received a seven page letter from military intelligence. It outlined in detail a plot to illegally overthrow the government.

Attempting to control the situation on the evening of February 6, he had two major concerns: the police might attack MDP supporters, and they might attack the military. On hindsight, the president would come to see that he could also have arranged for MDP supporters to disperse. Other actions would have led to other consequences. But, at that moment in time, he trusted his supporters to maintain order more than he did the police. He was assured by the MDP MP leading the protests there would be no disruptions.

He ordered the police to be removed and for the military to takeover.

Seven hours later, the military was yet to take any action.

The President felt he must go to the scene. He needed to see for himself, assess what was happening. That is the kind of person he was.

Before he left, he checked with the military personnel inside the headquarters.

“We have the capacity to bring out a 1000 troops,” they assured, beckoning him.

Nasheed walked to the HQ. What he found were the generals who looked as if they were on vacation, and no plan of attack. He had suspected as much. As a history enthusiast, he had studied in detail every coup that took place on the islands in the past 200 years.

He could read the signs, he knew when a coup was brewing.

**********

Inside, Nasheed met with his Home Minister Afeef, Defence Minister Tholhath, and Commissioner of Police Ahmed Faseeh.

“What should I do?” he asked them each individually.

Each replied the police must be restrained, arrested.

Twice, the military advanced only to retreat shortly afterwards. They treated the police with kid-gloves, there was no command. As the situation deteriorated, Nasheed rang the Chief Justice and the Speaker of Parliament. He felt that all organs of the state should be present at such a crisis. Both men agreed to come.

Nasheed also rang various MDP MPs, requesting their help at the scene. And, he made several attempts to contact the Vice President.

“But, of course,” those attempts were futile.

“The Vice President should be behind the President at a time like this,” Nasheed thought. “He should have come on his accord to be here.”

Waheed did not come. Nor did he answer the phone. Perhaps he was asleep? He was still up at 2:00 a.m. in the morning, Nasheed knew. The Vice President had appeared on television then, with a statement on the events.

Incidentally, Nasheed’s wife Laila and Waheed’s wife Ilham shared the same make-up artist. Whatever the whereabouts of Waheed, through his wife’s beautician, Nasheed would later learn that by 7:00 am of 7 February, Ilham was groomed for a special occasion.

In the early hours of 31 January, Waheed had met with the opposition in his home. Nasheed sought him out in the intervening period, but Waheed avoided him. The Vice President provided the President with neither advice nor assistance. When quizzed by Ministers in their government, Waheed refused to share any information about his meeting with the opposition.

Speaker Shahid and Chief Justice Faiz never turned up.

Some MPs did respond to Nasheed’s call for help. From his vantage point inside the military headquarters, Nasheed saw how each were beaten up. The attacks on individuals soon became a barrage, spreading across the entire area. It was to continue for the next two hours.

“In the net”

Inside the headquarters, the President’s phone had very little reception. It was not because the signal was jammed, although it should have been. Jamming the signal and providing him with another phone would have been a good strategy, Nasheed thought. He saw General Shiyam on the phone, sending a constant stream of text messages and receiving many phone calls. “Who but the President should Shiyam be in touch with at that moment in time?” Nasheed wondered.

Despite the bad reception, from time to time, President Nasheed received updates from members of his government and MDP. He heard about MNBC One being under attack. He heard police and military had taken over the airport, had control of the immigration counters.

He also heard Gayoom was up all night, co-ordinating the anti-government efforts from Malaysia. According to reports Nasheed received, on receiving news that he was at the military headquarters Gayoom said, “He is in the net.”

For all intents and purposes, Nasheed was now a captive, falsely imprisoned inside the military headquarters. His security detail, the Special Protection Group [SPG], were guards, not protectors. Their leadership was changed the day before, a man called Rauf replaced the former Chief. Rauf was in charge of protecting the President and his family, but, all day he languished outside the gates. No assurances of safety were forthcoming from him.

**********

Through the course of the next two hours, Nasheed went up and came down several times. He saw MP Mariya Didi being attacked. It was astounding. He saw the Deputy Minister being attacked. He saw other MPs assaulted. He saw the police headquarters being attacked.

[Between 7:00 and 8:00 in the morning] Nasheed went outside to speak to the mutinying police. His Police Commissioner no longer believed they were police, and refused to negotiate with them. Nasheed’s attempt was in vain. He could not agree to their demands for a pardon. It was not that he didn’t have the power or the authority.

“But”, he thought, “who am I to pardon before an investigation?”

Still, he promised them he would do his best for them. His promise went unheeded by the mutineers.

Inside the military HQ, he tried to talk to the soldiers. He had tried to do the same earlier, when he took a walk inside the premises shortly after his arrival. Some of the soldiers were playing chess, he noticed. Before he could conclude his walk, General Shiyam had intercepted him.

“They don’t want you to be walking around here,” the General said. He did not give a reason. It was possible soldiers of lower ranks had been told not to obey the President’s orders.

This time he met with about fifty soldiers from the lower ranks.

“You are taking the country to the dogs. You must do something,” he wanted to tell them.

“My wife is being attacked by MDP supporters,” one of them replied.

“A policeman has been murdered,” said another.

“That is not true. We don’t do that. We are a party in government and we govern,” the President responded.

“Will you come out with me to restrain a rebellious force?” he asked.

“If even 10-20 people agreed, I will lead them out,” the President thought.

Only one of them was willing. The rest said the President should resign.

*********

Nasheed saw police re-enforcements arriving in Male’ on speedboats. The boats belonged to Gasim Ibrahim’s Villa company.

“Strange,” he thought. Never in his position as Commander in Chief had he ordered the security forces to use Gasim’s vessels. All of them were in uniform.

“We will lynch you. We will hang you,” Nasheed heard them. They had ropes.

The violence escalated to a level Nasheed had never imagined he would see in the Maldives.

“I am going to die right now if I don’t resign”, he thought. Naseem [former foreign minister Mohamed Naseem] arrived.

“Mohamed Amin was standing right here when he was lynched,” Nasheed remarked. Amin was the first president of the Maldives. His bloody end in the hands of an angry mob is described in the recently published Orchid, reminding the public afresh of violence past.

Nasheed contemplated his options. He could go out and face the crowd, leave the rest to God.

“Please don’t do that,” Naseem pleaded with Nasheed. The Minister was crying. Both of them had grown up listening to the stories of Amin’s lynching. MP Riyaz joined Naseem’s plea.

“You are being silly. You don’t need to die today. There will be a tomorrow.”

**********

“Back off! We are opening the gate!” the President heard.

Nazim, Riyaz and Fayaz walked into the HQ when the gates, earlier shut under a direct order from the Presdent, were opened. There was no reason for them to be in the building, no capacity in which they could legally enter the premises.

The President knew when Nazim had arrived, he had heard the uproar with which the man’s presence had been greeted. Through the walls of the second floor room in which he was in, the President also heard Nazim address the crowds through a megaphone. He never met Nazim or the other two men inside the military HQ. Nor did he know which part of the building they were in. Once they arrived, Nasheed could not move without being restrained by someone.

“You cannot go there,” General Shiyam said when he tried to go upstairs, to the second wing. The General, whose lack of uniform at a time when the military was on red alert appeared to Nasheed as a sign of desertion, was categorical in his order. He offered no explanation.

“Someone else…someone from the opposition…Nazim? Umar Naseer? Someone was there”, the President would later speculate. “Someone was controlling operations from the other wing of the building.”

Twice the SPG, under new chief Rauf’s command, physically restrained the president. When Nasheed heard about MDP Haruge being ransacked he felt it was his duty to go. Faisal, now a major, held him back. Their excuse was that it was not safe for the president.

They checked his belongings. He had to ask their permission to use the toilet.

“Am I under arrest?” he asked.

Nasheed realised how foolish the question sounded. “I cannot be under arrest”, he thought. “But, of course, I am,” he countered himself.

Jailed several times during Gayoom’s regime for dissent, once detained in solitary confinement for 18 months, the President was familiar with arrest procedures. If he were to use the toilet without permission, they would break in. He had experienced it first hand twice before. His current guards had ‘Forensics’ written all over them.

Among them were faces he could never forget—they belonged to individuals who had interrogated and tortured him before. Soon after Nasheed’s first child was born and while he was expecting his second, one of them had ransacked his home. The man had meticulously gone through every single toy belonging to his young daughter.

“He wants to re-enact that,” Nasheed thought.

He knew these people well. He knew Abdulla Riyaz, was aware of the type of person he is. These people were not searching for anything in specific. The President knew it was an attempt to undress and demoralise him.

“They are trying to make you capitulate,” Nasheed thought. He knew torture and punishment were their preferred tactics.

“People outside are shouting and calling for you to be lynched”, they told him.

“You are going to lynch me from the inside,” he retorted.

**********

The President made the decision to resign at the precise moment he heard the gates ofBan’deyri Koshi being opened. He could hear the din of the baying crowd right outside.

“Mr President, if you don’t resign, they will kill you. They will sack [sic] Male’”, General Ibrahim Didi had told him earlier. The General sincerely believed it was his duty to defend the President with his life. Now, he was failing miserably. Twice the military had advanced and retreated. General Didi, an honourable man, offered to resign. Nasheed observed with concern that it was not beyond the General to contemplate suicide.

“I have only a few minutes to live”, the President now thought. The situation was dire, the country was under threat. Both his life and that of his wife, Laila, were in mortal danger. Laila had no protection in Mulee Aage, she had been forced to leave with their children. He was also convinced MPs Mariya, [Ahmed Easa] and Ibu [Ibrahim Mohamed Solih] had been killed.

But, Nasheed knew it was not safe for him to resign inside the military headquarters. Once the attack on the HQ began, four large bricks were thrown into the second floor room he was in. His precise location was no secret to the attackers outside. The bricks had left large holes in the glass. Shooting into the room through those holes would be easy.

Nasheed was aware there were guns all around him. The generals had guns, he was convinced. Even if the armoury was locked, they had the keys. As Nasheed would later come to understand, guns were moved that day from Coast Guard ships, from other barracks. There are pictures showing some of the movements. He heard KK [Kalhuthukkalaa Koshi] troops were going to join the police in their mutiny. He saw the troops. He heard that when the renegade police and military took over MNBC One earlier, they used guns and were in possession of firearms.

The President knew he must leave the building. He agreed to resign.

“But”, he said, “it would be better if I do not do it from here. I must have fresh clothes, a shave.” He was looking for an escape.

It did not work. His captors had the clothes and toiletries delivered to the HQ.

His resignation speech was to be made at a press conference in the President’s Office shortly.

Resignation: “The biggest rogue letter was written by me.”

Nasheed was taken the short distance to the President’s Office in a car. A large mob, composed not of the public but of police and military personnel, surrounded the car. They were screaming. They were banging on the President’s car. There was no security, no decorum.

Nazim, Riyaz and Fayaz were already at the President’s Office.

“These people should not be here,” he thought.

The President’s staff made several vain attempts to stop the three men. Defying everyone’s wishes and all protocol, they got into the dedicated President-only lift with Nasheed. Within the enclosed space, in the presence of Riyaz and Fayaz, Nazim dictated the words that should be in his resignation letter.

In his office, the President did not put the words on paper. It did not occur to him that he should, for he had never had any intention of resigning. For him, the agreement to resign was a ruse, a way of escaping death and leaving the military headquarters.

“The Speaker wants the letter,” Nazim told him. The President hesitated. He went to the window and looked outside. The situation appeared even worse than before. He looked at Nazim. There was a tell-tale bulge in his trousers.

“He has a gun,” Nasheed was convinced. He would later make out its outlines in a picture of Nazim with his back to the camera, taken after the resignation press conference.

“You cannot back out now. You have to go all the way,” Nazim said. The President knew clearly that his life was under threat, that he would not be allowed to live.

He began writing the letter. Twice he broke down. But he knew that if he did not remain composed, if he did not maintain decorum, there would be chaos. He took care composing the letter, including only the bare minimum of what Nazim had dictated. He would only write enough to keep Nazim happy. It was all an act. Theatre. A lie to save his life.

“The biggest rogue letter was written by me,” Nasheed would say later. He was baffled when Speaker Shahid accepted the letter, it followed none of the required official documentation processes. Nasheed wrote the letter himself. There were no reference numbers, its only nod to officialdom was the emblem on the presidential notepad he used.

Shahid is the type of person who takes pride in receiving letters. Normally, he would have telephoned Nasheed on receipt of the letter. On this day, he was silent. There was no contact. Official documentation rules require proof receipt. No such record exists for President Nasheed’s resignation letter.

Before the press conference, Nazim dictated to him what he should say in his resignation speech.

“Tell the people to keep calm and remain at home. Tell them no one should come out on the streets. Ask Moosa and Mariya to remain silent. Tell other party members not to say anything. Don’t say anything about me. You must say nothing about duress. Say that you are doing it of your own accord. Of your own free will,” Nazim dictated to Nasheed.

As with the letter, Nasheed did not say what Nazim wanted. Instead, he took Nazim’s ideas and polished them up and said the bare minimum needed to save his life and country. He did not state that he was resigning of his own free will. He did not include any instructions for Moosa Manik, Mariya Didi or anyone else to stay at home.

For Nasheed resigning was not the best option. It was the only option.

Dr Azra Naseem has a PhD in International Relations