India had conspired with the Maldivian Opposition to oust President Mohamed Muizzu, elected in September 2023 on an “India Out” plank, a report in The Washington Post has claimed.

The plan, according to the American newspaper, was abandoned after a few months as not enough Maldivian legislators were willing to join the effort to impeach Muizzu, who had asked India to withdraw its soldiers from the archipelago on his first day in office in November 2023.

The external affairs ministry had not commented on the report in the 24 hours since it had been out. The Telegraph has not independently verified the report.

In any case, by May 2024, the bilateral relationship was back on track after India extended budgetary support to the Maldives with the rollover of the $50-million Treasury Bill for another year on a request from Male.

Agents working at the behest of India’s intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), had in January begun quietly discussing with Maldivian Opposition leaders the possibility of removing Muizzu, the Post report says quoting people purportedly involved in the alleged discussions.

“And within weeks, a plan emerged,” the report says.

“In an internal document titled ‘Democratic Renewal Initiative’ and obtained by The Washington Post, Maldivian opposition politicians proposed bribing 40 members of parliament, including those from Muizzu’s own party, to vote to impeach him,” it adds.

The Post report said: “The document also proposed paying 10 senior army and police officers and three powerful criminal gangs to ensure Muizzu’s removal. To pay off the various parties, the conspirators sought 87 million Maldivian rufiyaa, or $6 million, and according to two Maldivian officials, it would be sought from India. After months of secret talks, the plotters failed to gather enough votes to impeach Muizzu, and India did not pursue or finance an attempt to oust him.”

Citing a conversation with an adviser to the Muizzu family, the Post report claims that in January 2024, a senior RAW officer at the Indian embassy in Washington explored a plan to overthrow the Maldivian President with two Indian intermediaries who had political and business contacts in the Maldives.

“One intermediary was Shirish Thorat, a former Indian police officer who has worked as a private military contractor and who advised Mohamed Nasheed when he was the Maldivian president on how to curb Islamist radicalization,” the Post report says.

“The other was Savio Rodrigues, a publisher based in the Indian state of Goa who previously served as a spokesman for India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party. When contacted by The Post, Thorat and Rodrigues separately confirmed the existence of plans to remove Muizzu but declined to say whether they were working on the Indian government’s behalf.”

After the Post report was published, Rodrigues, in a post on X, said: “In an age where narratives are weaponised, the Washington Post — a known front of the U.S. Deep State – has sought to tarnish my commitment to my nation globally.

“Their recent expose, aimed at discrediting me, is not an indictment of my actions but a testament to the truth I represent and the challenges I confront in the defence of my country… I stand by my actions, unapologetic and resolute. If defending my country requires me to act 100 times over, I will do so without hesitation.”

The Post report further dwells on the “lengths to which India has gone to prop up one of the country’s main parties, the Maldivian Democratic Party, after China forged relations with the MDP’s rivals, led by former Maldivian president Abdulla Yameen Abdul Gayoom and his protégé, current president Muizzu”.

It adds that India played a role in choosing the MDP’s leaders and its candidates for elections.

“During the 2023 presidential election, when Muizzu ran a campaign criticizing Indian influence in the country and raising the banner ‘India Out’, polling analysts and campaign workers arrived from India to support the MDP’s campaign against him, sparking concerns among some Maldivian defense officials,” the Post report says.