NEW DELHI: India on Friday refuted the report alleging that the opposition sought $6 million from India to aid in a plot to impeach Maldives President Mohamed Muizzu and said that the newspaper and reporter appear to nurse “a compulsive hostility towards India.”
Responding to a question on the Washington Post reports, ministry of external affairs (MEA) spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal slammed the newspaper and said that according to them they holds no credibility.
“These are articles that you referred were published by Washington Post, one on Maldives and the other one in relation to Pakistan. So to that, I would say that 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,” Jaiswal said in a weekly press briefing.
Earlier Washington post reported that Maldivian opposition politicians proposed bribing 40 MPs, including those from Muizzu’s own party, to vote to impeach him.
The report also claimed that a senior officer from India’s intelligence agency, R&AW, “explored” a plan to overthrow President Muizzu months after he assumed office.
Earlier, former Maldives president Mohamed Nasheed has dismissed a Washington Post report and said that he was unaware of any “serious plot” against President Muizzu and added that India would never support such a move.
Over Washington Post’s report claiming that India had carried out covert killing in Pakistan to target Lashkar-e-Taiba and Jaish-e-Muhammad, the MEA spokesperson warned neighbour of terrorist groups.
He quoted Hillary Clinton’s statement “You can’t keep snakes in your backyard and expect them only to bite your neighbors.”
