Colombo/N.Delhi, February 8 
Events in the Maldives today threatened to catch India on the wrong foot even as Prime Minister Manmohan Singh spoke to the new President and offered support to ensure stability and peace. Diplomatic sources in Colombo claimed that the Indian High Commission at Male had brokered the ‘solution’ under which Waheed took over as acting President.

But the ousted President Mohamed Nasheed today emerged from ‘protective custody’ to claim that he had been ousted at gun-point and that Waheed ought to step down. He and his party would never accept the coup, he declared while addressing cheering supporters at Male. He also called upon the judiciary to bring the plotters to book. 

President Waheed, the Stanford-educated former Vice-president, meanwhile denied all suggestion of a coup and promised to set up a multi-party government in the next few days. Islamic parties will be represented in the new cabinet, he affirmed.
Nasheed, hailed as ‘Obama of the East’ for his oratorial skill, faced resistance from Islamic hardliners when he allowed Israeli planes to land with tourists and invited multinationals to take over more uninhabited islands for building tourist resorts.The hawks then found fault with a monument that Pakistan had put up to showcase its pluralistic heritage during the SAARC summit. Mobs vandalised the monument depicting the transition from Harappa to Buddhist and then to Islamic heritage of Pakistan. An Ashokan Pillar put up by India for the SAARC summit was, however, left alone.