New Delhi, April 18
Former Maldives President Mohamed Nasheed today made an eye-opening revelation for India, suggesting increasing Chinese interest in gaining a foothold in the Indian Ocean archipelago.

He said three months before he was ousted from power, the Chinese had presented to him an ambitious plan of investing 1.4 billion dollars in 17 islands in the Maldives.

Nasheed said he did not accept the proposal since it would have meant giving employment to some 30,000 Chinese in his tiny country.

“The move would have radically altered the demographic character of our country which has a very small population,” he added. Also, he said he did not want to pit one country against another, alluding to India and China.

He is in New Delhi on a four-day visit, leading an eight-member delegation from his party. He is scheduled to hold meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai during the stay.

He claimed he had an opportunity to carry out "a counter-coup" against the present dispensation under Mohamed Waheed with the help from some military officers but rejected it due to his strong democratic roots.

Nasheed, who is also the first democratically elected president of Maldives, also pushed for support from the Indian government and its policy-makers for his party's call for early presidential polls to once again establish a popular government in Male.

“A few days after the coup of February seven, I was approached by some Maldivian military officials wanting to carry out a counter-coup and install me as president again. I refused and asked them not to waste my time,” Nasheed said at an interactive session at the Observer Research Foundation (ORF). "Brute force is wrong, even if it is me who does it or others," he said.

The Madlives Democratic Party (MDP) leader also expressed fears of Islamic radicals taking control of his sparsely populated nation. "We have to have the elections soon, because in the absence of an elected government in Maldives, the Islamic radicals are gaining ground."

"If Maldives gets into the hands of Islamic radicals, it will not only pose a threat to Maldivians, but also to other nations of the region," he said.