East India - Latest News Update, Information, Photos & Videos on East India at Lokmat Times

Male [Maldives], Sep 4 : Comparing China to the East India Company, former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed has alleged that without firing a bullet Beijing has grabbed more land than East India Company.In his address to the Indian Ocean Conference in Male, Nasheed, who is currently serving as the speaker of the Maldivian parliament, accused his previous government, under former President Abdulla Yameen, of putting the country in deep debt in connivance with China."Get hold of a government, buy up a parliament, change the laws, get unsolicited contracts then inflate the price of the contract to the level due to which business plans failed here. Give commercial loans and then, off course, they will not be able to pay it back. When you can't pay back, they ask for equity and with equity, you relinquish sovereignty, including the peace of the Indian Ocean. I am referring specifically to China," Nasheed told .Nasheed served as the fourth President of the Maldives from 2008 to 2012 and was the archipelago's first democratically elected president, ending three decades rule of Maumoon Abdul Gayoom."In recent times there has been an amazing rush to land grab. Although land grabs are occurring worldwide, they are common where protection of human rights is poor. It has a combination of practice, international and domestic drivers the Maldives up until the recent presidential election in 2018 was a flourishing land grab paradise," he added."If I were to take this contract to commercial arbitration it will be the same as somebody in Kolkata taking the East India Company for arbitration," the speaker added.Nasheed, in May, was unmously chosen to head the country's parliament or People's Majlis, by his Maldivian Democratic Party after it won a near three-quarter majority in the 87-member assembly in April.The former president, who until November was in exile, returned to the Maldives in November after the Supreme Court cleared him of terrorism charges imposed by the previous regime.He stressed that in order to seek more foreign investments in the Maldives, particularly in the case of China, it must undergo transparent tendering processes."It must have a democratic oversight and we must be able to benefit from these investments. It can't be vty," Nasheed said."During the last five years, a large amount of commercial money had come to the Maldives. They have been invested or spent on unviable inflated projects and most of these projects are funded by the Chinese EXIM Bank They do not have a business plan to it. The business plans failed here because prices were so high and then when they can't pay the debt they ask for equity and in the process, we lose sovereignty," he stressed."It is an issue of concern for us and we believe it's very unfair. Accurate amount of money that came to the Maldives must be understood and only that amount of money should be paid back," the former president said.( With inputs from ANI )

East IndiaFOLLOW

East india, Latest News

PRNewswire Bhubaneswar (Odisha) [India], May 25: To bring in trust and transparency for the benefit of consumers, OVO Farm, ... ...

Actor Saif Ali Khan is being massively trolled for his comment on Indian history. ...

Punjab Chief Minister Amarinder Singh to have interactive session with corporate who's who at the two-day Punjab Progressive Investors Summit, starting on Thursday with focus on putting the state's MSME sector on the centrestage of the global value c ...

There are times when asking the obvious just cant be helped. And of course, author William Dalrymple is bound to laugh when quizzed about what continues to fascinate him about India even after living here for decades. ...

Scottish historian and award winning author William Dalrymple recreated his latest work, "The Anarchy" at the launch of a seven-city book tour here, contending that the East India Company (EIC), which later morphed into the British Raj, was the "grea ...

Driven by a rise in orders from non-metro towns across India, e-commerce platform Snapdeal's first Diwali sales volumes of this year saw a growth of 52 per cent over last year, the company said on Monday. ...

(life) Historian and award-winning author William Dalrymple is all set to release his most ambitious and remarkable history book to date, The Anarchy: The Relentless Rise of The East India Company. It is believed that this book carries the weight of ...

Comparing China to the East India Company, former Maldivian President Mohamed Nasheed has alleged that without firing a bullet Beijing has grabbed more land than East India Company. ...