A Maldivian Story From 35 Years Ago
On the morning of November 3, 1988, then Squadron Leader Ashok Kumar Chordia of the Indian Air Force was all set to proceed to Pune for a skydiving demonstration at the National Defence Academy, his alma mater. Chordia, who retired as Group Captain in 2013, is a legendary paratrooper whose name figures in several records of the Indian military. He also wrote what is regarded as one of the definitive accounts of Operation Cactus, the Indian military intervention in Maldives that not only saved then-President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom but also prevented a possible arms race in the Indian Ocean.
Enter Robert Burns, the man who described to us in poetic detail that the best-laid schemes of mice and men are not to be trusted.
Instead of Pune that day, Squadron Leader Chordia was told to get ready for an unknown operation at Agra, where two Ilyushin Il-76 planes were waiting to transport our forces. Where were they headed? No one, except a few people, knew.
The operation started the same November night when the Il-76 aircraft airlifted the elements of the 50th Independent Parachute Brigade, commanded by Brigadier Farukh Bulsara, the 6th Battalion of the Parachute Regiment and the 17th Parachute Field Regiment from Agra Air Force Station, and flew them non-stop over 2,000 kilometres to land them over the Malé International Airport on Hulhule Island in the Maldives. The Indian Army paratroopers had arrived on Hulhule just nine hours after the appeal from President Gayoom, who was at the receiving end of a well-planned coup attempt by a group of Maldivians led by businessman Abdullah Luthufi and assisted by armed mercenaries of a Tamil secessionist organisation from Sri Lanka, the People's Liberation Organisation of Tamil Eelam (PLOTE).
Indian paratroopers secured the airfield, crossed over to Malé using commandeered boats and rescued President Gayoom. The paratroopers restored control of the capital to President Gayoom's government within hours.
Some mercenaries fled toward Sri Lanka in a hijacked freighter. Those unable to reach the ship in time were quickly rounded up and handed over to the Maldives government. Nineteen people reportedly died in the fighting, most of them mercenaries. The dead included two hostages killed by the mercenaries. The Indian Navy frigates Godavari and Betwa intercepted the freighter off the Sri Lankan coast and captured the mercenaries. The swift intervention by the Indian military and accurate intelligence successfully quelled the attempted coup d'état in the island nation.
“The capture of the mercenaries brought down the curtain on an action drama,” Squadron Leader Chordia would write later. “Being left with no further job on the island, I boarded an AN-32 aircraft back to India. Sitting by the window I feasted my eyes on the beauty of some of the most beautiful island archipelagos in the world.”
He added,
“There are varied opinions about the success of ‘Operation Cactus’. Some say it was ‘daring’, others in the media consider it ‘foolhardy’. I have a creepy feeling when I remember that I had spent the eventful night on the island without a personal weapon and that the presence of a mercenary by the side of the runway, even with a small or medium arm, could have inflicted unimaginable losses on the Indian Forces. But then in a war, risk and daring make such a difference. We took it and won. Without this courage and daring, the final outcome would have been quite different.”
Why is this event, one of the most talked-about Indian military operations, relevant now? Two things: One, Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu has taken a public “India-out-of-Maldives” and pro-China stand; and two, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s recent visit to Lakshadweep seems to have, for some inexplicable reason, irked leading politicians in Malé, leading to a severe backlash in India, one of Maldives’ biggest tourism contributors.
In that context, Bharat Sharma’s op-ed in Moneycontrol is not only timely but also adroitly analyses President Muizzu’s foreign policy.
“Recent meetings between the Maldivian leadership and Chinese officials,” Bharat writes, “indicate a burgeoning relationship for the time to come. The leadership sees the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) in a positive light, with Muizzu stating he had “...very high expectations on [the BRI]”, and that the initiative “can play a crucial role in [the Maldives’] development”.”
On the other hand, Muizzu says his anti-India stance does not imply a pro-China policy.
Bharat writes:
“Muizzu’s foreign policy stance may lead to the downsizing of Maldives-India security relations. It would lead to an upswing in security engagement with China if Malé were to interpret that Maldives’ sovereignty is best interpreted if cooperation with China is ramped up. On the development front, Maldives may likely still see the prospect of increased development cooperation with both India and China, as Muizzu’s meeting with Prime Minister Modi also indicates.”
You can read his full op-ed here.
Who is Afraid of Donald Trump?
His Republican rivals for the party’s nomination for President, that’s who. Donald Trump, whose presidency between 2017 and 2021 can only be described by independent watchers as ‘erratic’, has returned with such a vengeance on the political scenes in the US that, despite the legal troubles that follow him like a lamb shadowed Mary, experts are predicting a second Joe Biden-Donald Trump showdown for the White House this November.
At the centre of the debate is the so-called insurrection of January 6, 2021, when thousands of Trump supporters marched onto the US Capitol in Washington, DC and attempted to attack the lawmakers assembled in the American Congress to confirm Biden’s victory. This attempt, an egregious one to bring down the symbol of American democracy, should have been used by Trump’s rivals — Vivek Ramaswamy, Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis — to beat him down in the popularity polls. They cannot.
As Sachin Kalbag writes in The Free Press Journal:
“In an ideal world, Trump’s attack on American democracy should have been the lowest-hanging fruit for Ramaswamy, Haley and DeSantis to discredit the former occupant of the White House. If the trio has any hope of winning their party’s candidature to challenge Joe Biden in November this year, their biggest hurdle is Trump. This is not an ideal world, though.
“Trump’s base has unquestioned support for his January 6 actions as well as his Hitler-like phraseology. Millions of his fans have been brainwashed into believing that Joe Biden cheated Trump of a second presidency, and that the assault on the US Capitol was, in fact, a necessity rather than an aberration”
Where does that leave America’s legal and democratic systems as it heads to one of the most crucial presidential polls in contemporary history?
Sachin writes, quoting a leading political scientist:
“Trump’s ballot future actually depends on the American courts, specifically in Maine. Colorado and the US Supreme Court. In a column for CNN, the noted political scientist David Mark wrote: “If the courts allow it (Trump to be on the ballot), the swing states could gain even more influence over who wins the presidency in 2024, since there are a total of 68 electoral votes in those swing states where secretaries of state are elected Democrats or were appointed by a Democratic governor and may be in a position to decide if Trump’s name is kept off ballots.”
You can read Sachin’s column here.
The Argument for One Law for All Three Services
In his latest column for The Print, Lt Gen Prakash Menon discusses the controversial yet important issues related to the Indian army’s image in Jammu & Kashmir. The force certainly did not cover itself with glory when videos of torture in Poonch went viral recently.
Gen Menon writes:
“The latest ambush of two vehicles in the Bafliaz area of Poonch on 21 December resulted in fatalities of four personnel of 48 Rashtriya Rifles Battalion and injuries to three others. Two of them were beheaded and their arms and ammunition carried away. The People’s Anti-Fascist Front (PAFP), a proxy of the Jaish-e-Mohammed terror outfit, claimed responsibility. What gives the latest incident a different hue is what happened as a reaction to it. Ten persons from a nearby village were picked up by 48 RR and subjected to torture. It resulted in two persons’ death and the other eight required hospitalisation. Intriguingly, a short video of the torture appeared on social media. Protests were staged in the Kashmir valley. The image of the Army took a severe beating and one can expect it to have some effect on the local support for them. The importance of winning hearts and minds and preserving local support was later emphasised by the Defence Minister Rajnath Singh when he visited Jammu last week.”
As always, Gen Menon does not pull his punches in this piece. You can read his full column here.
Our Pick for the All Things Policy Podcast of the Week
Takshashila’s Satya Sahu interviews G S Madhusudan, CEO of InCore Semiconductors, on what semiconductor chip design entails in the background of India's growing chipmaking ambitions. You can listen to the fascinating discussion here.
Announcing the January 2024 #BookLounge
Later this month, on January 19, Takshashila will host another edition of Book Lounge where Shree Kumar, senior architect at Innominds, will be in conversation with Takshashila deputy director Pranay Kotasthane and co-author Abhiram Manchi, who have penned one of the year’s best books on semiconductors — When The Chips Are Down: A Deep Dive Into A Global Crisis.
RSVP to contact[at]takshashila[dot]org[dot]in.
Upcoming Webinar | Previewing the 2024 Taiwan Elections: Regional Implications
During this webinar, researchers from Takshashila's Indo-Pacific Research Programme will share insights on the upcoming Taiwan elections, along with key issues related to China-Taiwan ties, security challenges and India's policy with regard to Taiwan.
That’s all from us this week. Take care.