 "Washington Post’s Maldivian ‘exposé’ is as much a deep state hitjob against Trump as it is against India")
In politics, as in geopolitics, timing is an important, if not the most important, ingredient for success. The Washington Post’s latest report — a few naive ones may see it as one last bit to revive the dying art of investigative journalism — ticks all the right buttons on that. The report, ‘A plot in paradise and India’s struggle for influence in Asia’, written jointly by an American and an Indian to give it more credibility, accuses New Delhi of secretly plotting to “oust” the “pro-China” Maldivian President, Mohamed Muizzu.
The report says, “By January 2024, agents working at the behest of India’s intelligence agency, the Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), began quietly discussing with Maldivian opposition leaders the possibility of removing Muizzu, according to people involved in the discussions. And within weeks, a plan emerged.”
The plot, as per the Washington Post report, involved “bribing 40 members of parliament, including those from Muizzu’s own party, to vote to impeach him”. It also proposed “paying 10 senior army and police officers and three powerful criminal gangs to ensure Muizzu’s removal”. After months of “secret talks”, the report adds, “the plotters failed to gather enough votes to impeach Muizzu, and India did not pursue or finance an attempt to oust him”.
The timing of the report and the incredible level of details provided therein expose the real motive and the powerful shadowy figures behind it all. It has all the traces of the American deep state using the ‘liberal’ media to forward its illiberal agenda. It may be one last attempt to hurt India before the Trump administration takes over on January 20 — a dispensation whose leader has never shied away from taking a potshot at the country’s deep state.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsComing as it does towards the fag end of the Biden administration, making it all the more difficult for the coming Trump government to bring the Indo-American ties on track, the Washington Post report follows a series of events that aimed to hurting India’s interest — from the recent criminal indictment in the US of a prominent Indian businessman, to ludicrously trying to link India with the assassinations and attempted assassinations of Khalistani terrorists in Canada and the US.
To top it all, the United States is currently witnessing a raging debate around H-1B visa for Indian nationals, which with each passing day is turning into a racial diatribe against people from India and of Indian origins. The H-1B visa controversy has caught many by surprise, especially Team Trump that fought the presidential elections on the issue of illegal immigrants. But today, MAGA (Make America Great Again), which had garnered the support of a considerable number of legal immigrants, including Indians, is being threatened to be transformed into MAWA (Make America White Again). The line that was consciously drawn between legal and illegal immigrants before and during the elections has blurred now. The primary target is India and Indians. This again hints at the deep state’s backhand shot against Trump, putting its broad-based MAGA coalition under threat. This has brought the Democrats, licking their wounds post-poll results, back in business. With the H1-B visa row, the American deep state has cornered both Trump and India — the two of its foremost adversaries.
One may wonder why the US deep state would try to corner India. The answer may lie with India’s inner dynamics and its ties with China. The US-led West puts India in the “friends with benefits” category. It will be friendly but will have too many differences to be an ally. It wants to co-opt India to downsize China, but is equally wary of rising India. While acknowledging India’s utility, especially against growing Chinese threats, the American establishment is similarly uneasy about a strong Delhi ultimately propelling out of the Western orbit of influence. The US, thus, works both ways: It helps India grow and yet works towards cutting it to size as well.
Then, of course, the Washington Post report can be analysed through changing India-China dynamics, especially after the recent border agreement between the two countries. India and China have agreed for complete disengagement at the two friction points of Depsang and Demchok. Disengagement doesn’t mean that all issues with China have been settled or that Delhi and Beijing are friends now, but this was enough to send the establishment in Washington DC in a tizzy.
The latest report could be an attempt to create a new friction point between the two countries, given the “shadowy struggle between India and China for influence over a strategic swath of Asia and its surrounding waters”. It also accuses India of acting undemocratically and stocking “local resentment by aggressively undermining elected leaders who are perceived to be close to Pakistan — and increasingly today, China”.
The US deep state won’t be naïve enough to believe that an American media report would influence India and China to change their policies vis-à-vis each other. The Washington Post report, in that way, is the American deep state’s misinformation war against India, and an obvious warning shot to New Delhi that it is being closely watched. But more importantly, it is also a message for the US president-elect that his collision course with the deep state won’t take him anywhere, that it’s the American establishment that ultimately calls the shots. It would be interesting to see how Trump reacts to the deep state’s challenge. His response will shape not just the India-US relations, but also India-China and Sino-American relations in the rest of the decade.
The views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely those of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost’s views.
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