Thursday
25th Apr 2024
Dhivehi Edition
President Solih, MDP leader Majlis Speaker Nasheed, and MDP PG leader Azim
The ruling Maldivian Democratic Party’s (MDP) Parliamentary Group has passed a decision to submit a bill that would punish the grassroots “India Out” movement with heavy fines, house arrests, and prison sentences.
The “India Out” campaign is a grassroots movement which called for the removal of all Indian military personnel and assets from the Maldives.
A parliamentarian told The Maldives Journal, on the condition of anonymity, that the MDP had collectively approved the decision sometime this morning.
The parliamentary group approved the decision to submit the draft of the bill as it currently was. The parliamentary group decided that the bill required further amendments, those amendments were to be made during the inquiry by the relevant parliament committee.
The bill has been termed "The Bill To Stop All Actions That Could Negatively Effect Relations Established By The Maldives With Foreign Countries". The MDP is preparing to present the bill once the Majlis comes out of recess this week.
Drafts of the bill have been shared with MDP parliamentarians. The text of the draft states that its primary objective is to hinder and stop any actions that could have a negative effect on the Maldives' relations with foreign countries.
As an example of such a punishable action, the draft mentions the case of a specific group claiming to represent the people or a political party were to organise demonstrations and hold protests against a specific country's government and its specific institutions; in matters that did not contradict legal and international standards accepted by the Maldives and the foreign country.
The bill also criminalises demonstrating that the Maldives is under the dominion of a foreign country or that its sovereignty and independence are controlled by the military, political, and economic means of a foreign country.
The bill suggests fines of MVR20,000, imprisonment, and house-arrest as punishments.
The parliamentarian had said that the bill was to be submitted sometime next week.
The Parliament Committee on National Security Services had recently decided to launch an inquiry into the “ill effects” the “India Out” movement may have on the Maldives on the request of MDP leader, Majlis Speaker Mohamed Nasheed.
The MDP began drafting the bill a short while after the Indian government had instructed the Maldivian government to put a stop to the "India Out" movement. The “India Out” movement, though it had begun on social media as a grassroots movement, has since been adopted by opposition leader, former President Abdullah Yameen Abdul Gayyoom; the Maldivian government has made many attempts to put a stop to the movement.