New Delhi, February 15
India has strongly refuted suggestions that it interfered in the internal matters of the Maldives by allowing former President Mohamed Nasheed to take refuge at the Indian High Commission in Male. It hoped Nasheed would leave the mission on his own so that the ‘complicated’ situation in the tiny nation could be resolved.

Sources here said there was no question of New Delhi taking sides in the ongoing political crisis in the Indian Ocean archipelago in the run-up to the elections there in September.

Sources said New Delhi’s statement on Wednesday after Nasheed walked into the Indian High Commission was never meant to pass a judgement on the internal system of the Maldives.

“We have clarified our position (on the situation in the Maldives)," they said amid reports that the Indian High Commission website had been hacked. Asked why India allowed Nasheed to take shelter at the Indian mission, sources said he just came to the High Commission and told a young officer that he wanted to meet High Commissioner DN Mulay.

The officer obviously could not have turned him back. Nasheed has stayed put there ever since. Sources hoped Nasheed would leave the mission premises on his own. Asked what India would do if he did not leave, the sources quipped “we will cross the bridge when we come to it.”

The Maldives, meanwhile, reiterated its charge that India was trying to undermine its democratic institutions.

External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid spoke for some 40 minutes with his Maldivian counterpart Abdul Samad Abdullah yesterday. Abdullah told Khurshid that the Maldivian Government "would do its utmost to prevent any precipitating act that adversely affects the atmosphere for a free and fair democratic process and rule of law".

UN Secretary General Ban ki-Moon today urged political actors in Male to "exercise restraint" and "work towards creating conditions conducive for fair, peaceful and inclusive" presidential elections due on September 7.

The US and the UK also expressed concern over the situation in the Maldives.