<\/p>\n
MALE: Maldivian Presi\u00addent Mohamed Muizzu suspended three deputy ministers on Sunday for making \u201cderogatory remarks\u201d against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government said.<\/p>\n Muizzu, who won September elections on promises that included removing a small contingent of Indian troops operating maritime aircraft from his archipelago, banned the deputy ministers \u2014 Malsha Shareef, Abdulla Mahzoon and Mariyam Shiuna \u2014 from work pending an investigation.<\/p>\n Shiuna had called Modi a \u201cclown\u201d following the prime minister\u2019s visit to the Indian territory of Lakshadweep, a cluster of atolls just north of the Maldives.<\/p>\n The three suspended ministers \u2014 all from the youth ministry \u2014 criticised Modi on social media, officials said.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Maldives government is aware of derogatory remarks on social media platforms against foreign leaders and high ranking individuals,\u201d the official statement added.<\/p>\n \u201cThese opinions are personal and do not represent the views of the government of Maldives.\u201d<\/p>\n A senior administrative official claimed that Muizzu had suspended the trio and ordered an investigation. He said Male was concerned about repercussions, as Indians were the largest group of foreign visitors to the Maldives, where tourism accounts for almost one-third of the economy.<\/p>\n On Jan 4, Modi posted on social media praising the \u201cpristine bea\u00adches\u201d of India\u2019s Lak\u00adshad\u00adweep islands, which lie about 130km north of the Maldives at their closest point. He also posted photos of himself snorkelling, and suggested the islands should be on the must-visit list of any adventure-seeking tourist.<\/p>\n Known as an expensive holiday destination with secluded resorts, the Maldives has also become a geopolitical hotspot.<\/p>\n Global east-west shipping lanes pass the nation\u2019s chain of 1,192 tiny coral islands, stretching around 800km across the equator.<\/p>\n Muizzu, who was seen in elections as a proxy of the pro-China former leader Abdulla Yameen, toned down his anti-Indian rhetoric after coming to power though he said he would not upend the regional balance by replacing Indian forces with Chinese troops.<\/p>\n Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2024<\/em><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Malsha Shareef MALE: Maldivian Presi\u00addent Mohamed Muizzu suspended three deputy ministers on Sunday for making \u201cderogatory remarks\u201d against Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the government said. Muizzu, who won September elections on promises that included removing a small contingent of Indian troops operating maritime aircraft from his archipelago, banned the deputy ministers \u2014 Malsha Shareef, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":45520,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2024\/01\/08101503ed09f90.jpg?r=101513","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45519","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45519","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45519"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45519\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45520"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45519"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45519"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pakistaninewspaperlist.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45519"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}