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India’s Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai,  in New Delhi, Aug 1, 2011.

India said it is sending Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai to the Maldives Wednesday – a sign that New Delhi is trying to play a larger role in finding an end to the political standoff in the tiny Indian Ocean nation.
Former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed, the country’s first democratically elected leader, says he was deposed in an armed coup just over a week ago and wants his job back. The current government says he went willingly and refuses Mr. Nasheed’s demand for immediate elections.
Some analysts have argued India, as the preeminent regional power, should be playing a more central role in the Maldives dispute.
India already patrols Maldivian waters to deter piracy. New Delhi’s High Commission in Male, the capital, is housed in the building of the family of a former Maldivian president. (Most other countries, including the U.S., run their Maldives policy out of Sri Lanka.)
But New Delhi reduced its ability to play a mediating role by moving within hours of Mr. Nasheed’s ouster to recognize the new government, led by President Waheed Hassan Manik.
“It’s very unfortunate that India took a stance on the legitimacy of the government at such an early stage,” said Ahmed Naseem, who was the Maldives’ foreign minister until last week. Mr. Naseem, though, welcomed India’s decision to send Mr. Mathai, calling him a “highly experienced diplomat.”
The move signals, perhaps, that India realizes the problem is not just going to go away and it’s ready to step up its involvement.
Although it’s unclear what Mr. Mathai’s visit could achieve, Mr. Nasheed’s supporters are clearly hoping the slew of foreign emissaries visiting the Maldives will keep the pressure up on Mr. Manik’s government to call early presidential elections.
Mr. Manik denies there was a coup and says Mr. Nasheed, who came to power in 2008, resigned of his own volition. His government has rejected calls by Nasheed loyalists for early elections, saying they’ll be held as scheduled in 2013.
India has already sent one envoy, M. Ganapathi, a senior foreign ministry bureaucrat. Like other visitors who arrived in Male last week, he was unable to break the impasse.
Other emissaries have included Robert Blake, U.S. assistant secretary of state for South and Central Asia, and a number of European and United Nations representatives.
For now, none have been able to forge a compromise, with Nasheed’s side vowing to continue to protest on the street until they win an immediate vote they hope will restore him to power.
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Via: India Real Time