MEA slams WaPo reporting on ‘anti-Muizzu plot’, Pakistan killings. ‘Nurse compulsive hostility’

MEA spokesperson responds to Pakistan Deputy PM Ishaq Dar’s comments urging mutual willingness to normalise ties, saying that 'the relevant T-word is terrorism and not tango.'

Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu | Reuters

New Delhi: India Friday slammed reports by the American newspaper The Washington Post linking it with an alleged plot to oust the Maldivian government, as well as, an alleged targeted assassination campaign in Pakistan.

“Both the newspaper and the reporter in question appear to nurse a compulsive hostility towards India. You can see a pattern in their activities. I leave you to judge their credibility. As far as we are concerned, they have none,” Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said at a regular press briefing.

In response to the article regarding the assassination plots, he added: “As regards Pakistan, I remind you of what Hillary Clinton said – ‘You can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbours’.”

The strong comments come after The Post published two stories on Monday and Tuesday regarding the activities of Indian intelligence agencies in the neighbourhood. It follows on The Post’s reporting earlier in 2024 of activities of Indian intelligence agencies in the US and Canada.

Alleged activities by Indian intelligence agencies have come under increasing international scrutiny following the alleged foiled plot to assassinate Gurpatwant Singh Pannun, the Indian designated terrorist who shuttles between the US and Canada. The Canadian government has said that it has “credible allegations” linking agents of the Indian government and the killing of Hardeep Singh Nijjar, an Indian designated terrorist.

In the first of its two reports from this week, The Post, alleged that members of parliament from the opposition party the Maldivian Democratic Party (MDP) sought $6 million from India as a part of its plan to impeach President Mohamed Muizzu, mere months after he assumed the presidency in November 2023.

The American daily further alleged that an Indian intelligence officer from its embassy in Washington D.C. was in touch with Shirish Thorat, a former Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, who was one of the alleged interlocutors to the plot. It also named Savio Rodrigues, a former candidate from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to the Goa Assembly, as another intermediary to the plot.

The MDP had at the end of January 2024 announced its intention to impeach Muizzu, who was elected on an ‘India Out’ platform. It, however, failed to receive enough support from parliamentarians. The Maldivian Supreme Court also ordered against standing rules in the Parliament which made impeachment easier in early February last year.

The impeachment motion went nowhere and the MDP eventually lost in the parliamentary election held later in the year.

In the second story, The Post, quoting Pakistani and Western intelligence sources, alleged that India’s external intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (R&AW) since 2021 has been involved in at least half a dozen assassinations in the neighbouring country.

The American newspaper examined six cases in Pakistan, which allegedly is similar to programmes run by Indian intelligence in North America.

‘T for terrorism not tango’

On Thursday, Pakistan Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar emphasised that the normalisation of ties between New Delhi and Islamabad required willingness on both sides during an interaction with the media.

Dar had urged India to be willing to engage in improving ties, especially in the sector of trade, by quipping that it “takes two to tango.”

In response to Dar’s comments, Jaiswal on Friday said, “There I would like to refer to tango – the relevant ‘T’ word, there is terrorism and not tango.”

Bilateral relations have deteriorated sharply, especially after Islamabad downgraded diplomatic relations with New Delhi following the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution in August 2019.

Following the Pulwama terrorist attack in 2019, which killed 40 Indian Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel, India had imposed 200 percent tariffs on Pakistani goods and suspended trade across the Line of Control (LoC). Islamabad retaliated by banning Indian imports, though amending it later to allow import of essential pharmaceutical products.

While bilateral trade has slid down, Pakistan’s economy has also been facing a number of crises, requiring a bailout from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) of $7 billion, which was approved in September 2024.

(Edited by Tony Rai)