India must not fail the Maldives test

The need is to prevent the stabilising of a Wahhabi outpost already breeding dozens of ISIS fighters at the trade routes of the western reaches of the Indo-Pacific.

 

Barack Obama’s envoy to the UN, Samantha Power, concretized the concept of the “Responsibility to Protect”. She meant protect vulnerable populations that are thrown into agony by unscrupulous regime elements oblivious to moral considerations. Unfortunately, Ms Power allowed her imagination rather than her intellect to determine exactly who such miscreants were, with the result that she is among those directly responsible for the hell that Libya and subsequently Syria has become. Muammar Gaddafi was opposed to India, he even favoured the delinking of Kashmir from the Union. However, as his Green Book elucidates, he favoured a moderate, syncretic interpretation of a noble faith that has systematically been sought to be subverted by the twin philosophies of Wahhabism and Khomeinism. As a consequence, Colonel Gaddafi ensured that Al Qaeda was emasculated throughout Libya, while the Wahhabis remained in a weakened state until they were handed over much larger doses than usual of cash and weapons by the GCC and NATO since the beginning of 2011. What followed was predicted (and ignored by the protagonists of intervention) in early 2011 itself by this columnist, which was the meltdown of Libya into a congeries of warlord states; the ascent of Wahhabism and its terror auxiliaries ; and a flood of human beings escaping into Europe. Subsequently, a similar mistake was made in Syria, the consequence of which is the destruction of that country because of the errors made by NATO “experts”, who seem unable to escape from the historical tradition of European powers coddling the Wahhabis rather than the moderate elements of local populations. Intervention based on the Responsibility to Protect must be on the basis of support for moderates and not extremists, else a situation will get created similar to that prevailing in Syria, where those groups funded and armed by NATO are systematically killing Christians, Shia and Druze within the areas they control as a consequence of help from the GCC-NATO alliance. Fortunately for the fanatics, Christians in the US or Europe seem unmoved by the Calvary of their co-religionists in Syria, and are still pressing for the elimination of Bashar Assad, in whose zone alone Christians and other minorities are safe in what was once a state named Syria. Should they succeed, the genocide of Christians, Shia and Druze at the hands of NATO-backed forces will be complete.

The global battle against Wahhabism needs to be won if international prosperity and stability are to be ensured, especially in the Middle East. This war is being

courageously led by no less an individual than Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman of Saudi Arabia. In Syria and Iraq, a single squadron each of the air warriors of the IAF could have assisted substantially in eradicating ISIS nests, but such a chance to demonstrate concrete commitment to the war on extremism has been lost. In contrast, Russia under Vladimir Putin seized the opportunity and sent two squadrons to Syria, which altered the course of the war and re-established Moscow as a global Big Power. But in India, even in Kashmir, Wahhabi fanatics are allowed to live in luxury and propagate their creed. The BJP even ensured that a soft separatist party was enabled to hold state power in Srinagar through their support, until its Vajpayee-inspired patience fortunately snapped a few months ago. Since 2013, an overtly Wahhabi cabal has seized power in the Maldives, imprisoned the Chief Justice as well as numerous moderate leaders, and imposed a Wahhabi regimen on a moderate people. Telephone and personal contact between the Wahhabis now ruling the Maldives and their co-fanatics in Pakistan (especially within the uniformed services) have increased exponentially for the past five years. Popular leaders of the island nation have repeatedly called for intervention by India to rescue the Maldives from Wahhabi darkness, yet they have been publicly and privately told by authorities here to “keep quiet” so as not to provoke the Wahhabi establishment in Male. Because Donald J. Trump, and not Hillary R. Clinton, was elected the President of the US on 8 November 2016, India will be assured of US backing for armed intervention designed to save the Maldives from the ongoing rush towards GHQ-controlled and Wahhabi-funded disaster. Prime Minister Modi could talk to his good friend, President Xi Jinping, and assure him that Chinese interests will be far safer under moderate than under fanatic rule, and given the growing warmth between the two sides in the context of Modi’s call in Singapore for an “inclusive” Indo-Pacific, Beijing is unlikely to jeopardise its potentially huge commercial, business and other relationships with India by doing what GHQ Rawalpindi wants, which is to send the PLA to challenge Indian forces temporarily needed for protecting the Maldivian people.

The September election in the Maldives will be what elections are in states ruled by Wahhabis, which is a caricature of democracy that reflects not the will of the people but the grip of an extremist cabal over the election process. Once a captive Election Commission (and a now enslaved Court) declares the inevitable verdict claiming victory for forcibly-installed President Abdulla Yameen, Prime Minister Narendra Modi must act. The Samantha Powers of the world may not believe that those with a tan have an equal right to enforce the doctrine of protection of the vulnerable as themselves, but such prejudices are irrelevant. The need is to prevent the stabilising of a Wahhabi outpost already breeding dozens of ISIS fighters at the very jugular of the trade routes of the western reaches of the Indo-Pacific.